Sam Brownback finished his speech to the Family Research Council summit without mentioning anything about his expected departure from the race. It’s odd – if we had seen the candidate who just addressed the FRC in every debate and candidate forum, I don’t think Brownback would be leaving the race this soon.

I asked one of his former campaign guys, Leon Wolf, what his thoughts were upon Brownback’s expected departure, and he offered a lenghty and insightful response. I urge you to read the whole thing, but here are three insights that I think offer lessons to the other candidates and future campaigns.

1) “He cared about illegal immigrants as people, and so he was more willing to forgive them their trespasses than maybe he should have been, if he was interested in running a viable Presidential campaign.”

2) “Sam himself was always the nicest guy in whatever room he was in – never with a cross word for anyone, never losing his temper. But the campaign was staffed primarily by bare-knuckled brawlers, which created some confusion in the mind of folks.”

3) “Giving credit where credit is due, we lost the opportunity we had to Mike Huckabee, who was a little better in the debates, and had the political acumen to latch on to a dedicated existing Iowa organization in the FairTaxers. Period.”

Also note Wolf thinks Brownback will run for governor of Kansas in 2010.