Can you imagine the uproar if Fred Thompson waited until November 13 to announce?
In those days, November the year before looked like a perfectly proper and polite time to get into the race, especially when you had already laid the background work. My issues with Fred are basically two: (1)there is little he can point out as to having accomplished during eight years in the U.S. Senate and (2)so far, he seems to think he is entitled to the nomination without working for it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but we had a candidate for governor here in Pennsylvania who would have been a vast improvement over the crook still occupying the governor's mansion. Polls even showed he could soundly beat him. But instead of earning the nomination, he got it handed to him. The crook's machine beat him like a cheap drum.
Everyone knew that Reagan was running for president since his first official announcement on November 20, 1975 for the 1976 convention. 'Twas his speech at the '76 convention that put a lock on his nomination at the 1980 convention.