Posted on 09/05/2007 7:56:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
After spending months testing the waters for a presidential run, Sen. Fred Thompson has made his candidacy official.
"I am running for president of the United States," he said during a taping of NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," drawing applause and cheers from the audience.
Thompson will also talk about his decision to join the race for the Republican presidential nomination in a webcast scheduled to go online early Thursday.
A five-day campaign tour will follow Thompson's announcement, sources said last week.
Thompson will stump in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Then it's on to Lawrenceburg, Tennessee -- his hometown -- for a "homecoming" on September 15, the sources said.
Political observers say Thompson may be late entering the race. The first voting is only four months away and the others have been in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond for months.
"Expectations are sky high, which means he better perform flawlessly out of the box or a lot of people are going to start grumbling that he's not the great savior we thought he was," said Republican pollster Whit Ayres.
Thompson created a fundraising committee that allowed him to begin raising money for a possible presidential campaign on June 1. He's angling for a conservative base that hasn't coalesced around one candidate.
During his speeches this summer, he has promised his commitment to outlaw abortion is more than lip service.
"I don't think as the president you can do anything halfway," Thompson said in August.
On Iraq, he's in no rush to talk about bringing troops home. "Right now we need to make every effort to make sure that we don't get run out of there with our tails between our legs," Thompson said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
bump
Good luck Fred. At least you are trying.
I have been scanning YouTube for a clip of The Announcement. What I found was, EVERY Fred Thompson clip I saw on YouTube is getting spammed. The comments are mostly from Ron Paul supporters (so they state).
Renounce your membership in the Council On Foreign Relations and maybe I’ll consider you Fred...till then, nada.
All eyes will be on Jay Leno tonight.
You have no idea what the CFR is or isn't do you.
“Renounce your membership in the Council On Foreign Relations and maybe I’ll consider you Fred...till then, nada.”
Paranoia is a dangerous motivator when it comes to determining ones vote.
Didn’t Whit Ayres play Marlo’s daddy on “That Girl” ?
Another story,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/5665.html
A key adviser said the two biggest issues motivating Thompson are “Islamic radicalism and the threat of terrorism reaching our shores,” and a sense that “politics has broken down in the domestic arena, too.”
Thompson plans to announce some politically dicey policies, including a plan to overhaul a system of entitlements — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — that some experts argue is not financially sustainable.
Loser 9/10 issues. Sounds like the effect of throwing off his younger supporters for the old guard. If he mentions anything about “privatization” of social security he’s finished.
Too bad it ain’t Johnny Carson. :-(
The clip will be on http://www.Fred08.com as of midnight!
What a class act Johnny was—he was the best and there will never be anyone like him. I miss him.
Rue Paul showed his true colors tonight.
They run.
His short stature reflects the length of the bus his followers went to school on. Damned short.
-so who’s going to win the morning talk shows?
FRed got more airtime during the debate than half the candidates on stage got all night! They couldn’t stop talking about him...right out of the gate it was “Fred Thompson.....”
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