Tell that to the FEC:
“What’s gotten Mr. Thompson in trouble is that in order to be considered in the “testing the waters” phase of one’s campaign, one cannot make “written or oral statements” that refer to one’s self as “a candidate for a particular office.” However, in order to keep up interest from voters, Mr. Thompson has had to play a little peek-a-boo with statements such as: “You’re either running or not running. I think the steps we’re taking are pretty obvious.” But why should our election laws encourage candidates to engage in such charades? The “testing the waters” status allows candidates to delay disclosing who their donors are and how much they’ve raised, but this only muddies the waters as voters and donors consider a potential candidate. The only other thing the status accomplishes is to create uncertainty for potential campaigns as to what they can and cannot do as far as raising and spending money and communicating with voters. Having gotten it wrong could end up costing Mr. Thompson more than $1 million in fines.”
He’s done exactly what he needs to do for disclosure. Furthermore, he’s shown just what a mockery the loophole ridden FEC and CFR (that’s campaign finance reform, not Council on Foreign Relations) laws are. Sounds like sour grapes from other candidates if they start complaining about this. Hillary could have been saving up her war chest all this time, but she decided to spend it. Ditto for Romney and Rudy. Their examples of piss-poor campaign planning do not “a crisis” for Thompson make.