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I'm not entirely thrilled with anybody who's running for president at this point, although some of them have their good points. Right today, I'm just thinking broadly on some of Fred Thompson's good points. That's because he had an interesting confrontation on Fox News earlier today with reporter Chris Wallace, to whom he gave on air criticism of FNC for their coverage of his campaign. He didn't try to intimidate the host with a wagging finger and threatening gestures like Bill Clinton, or send out third party threats and cheap manipulation like Hillary. Instead, he had some specific grievances that...

AMES, Iowa - Fred Thompson says his often-dour demeanor simply reflects his seriousness about the issues facing the country. ``I'm just Fred,'' he says, and the image that's served him through a successful political career won't be changing. Thompson, who played a tough-minded and gruff district attorney on television's ``Law & Order,'' offers precisely that image as he campaigns for the GOP presidential nomination. He's generally serious and direct, with little of the backslapping and joking of many of his rivals. ``I laugh when I am amused and I'm amused a lot,'' said Thompson, in an interview with The Associated...

Burlington, Ia. — Republican Fred Thompson told potential supporters on Sunday that he’s running for president as a champion of ideals held by all Americans: a strong national defense, adherence to the rule of law and a market economy. “And immigration laws that actually work,” Thompson said at the outset. “That’s not just a Republican idea, I don’t think.” Speaking at Big Muddy’s restaurant in Burlington, the former Tennessee senator said he would be able to secure the votes of independents in a general election. Thompson criticized what he called Democrats’ insistence on infusing government into everything. “Would you trust...

Here's your chance to make a cameo appearance in Fred's Presidential campaign. Make a video telling us why you support Fred Thompson for President and upload it using the form below. We'll share these videos with all of our supporters on Fred08.com, and allow you, and them, to pick the best one. Here's your chance to be a star. Submit your video now. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sure, Fred Thompson is an accomplished lawyer, prosecuting criminals in Tennessee before serving as counsel on the Watergate hearings. And yes, he served the people of Tennessee as a common sense, conservative Senator for eight years....

WASHINGTON – It is the kind of story you could write a book about: A 35-year-old single mother of three is fired from her state job after refusing to go along with a scheme to pardon criminals who bribe aides to the governor. The plot cries out for a good lawyer to save the day. All the better if he has charm and a commanding presence. Enter Fred Thompson, a 6-foot-5 cigar-chomping Southern gentleman. He saves the day; the woman is vindicated. And best of all, for a man with a presidential campaign in his future, it is a true...

FORT MILL -- A campaign event in a bar, in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday -- Fred Thompson seemed like my kind of guy. And after he spoke at Beef 'O' Brady's in Fort Mill -- which is technically a restaurant, but any place with eight beers on tap and ashtrays on the bar is a bar -- many of about 150 people who packed the place said Fred Thompson is their kind of guy, too. Especially guys like Ed Egan. From between Rock Hill and York, 63 years old, Marine Corps helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Egan...

Fred D. Thompson appears to be stepping it up, at least to a slow trot. After a series of leisurely weeks, Thompson's campaign announced yesterday that it plans to air its first television commercial since the former senator from Tennessee launched his White House bid just after Labor Day. In the ad, which will run in Iowa this week, Thompson introduces himself to voters as a "consistent conservative" who as a Republican U.S. senator "fought for tax cuts, and for conservative judges." He adds: "And I'm proud to have had a 100 percent pro-life voting record." Thompson plans to campaign...

This advertisement, the first for Fred D. Thompson since he announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, is to begin running today in Iowa and nationally on the Fox News Channel. PRODUCER Revolution Media Group. THE SCRIPT Mr. Thompson says: “I’ve been a conservative my whole life. I grew up in a little hometown just like this. Started the first Young Republican Club in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. “In eight years in the United States Senate, I fought for tax cuts and for conservative judges. And I’m proud to have had a 100 percent pro-life voting record. “Common-sense conservative principles. Free...

That Southern charm may soften the appearance of the actor-senator’s hardened conservative views. Last month brough the moment in the presidential campaign I’d been dreading. The popular conservative from my home state, fellow Tennessean Fred Thompson, entered the Republican primary. The pundits and “insiders” have dismissed the actor and former senator even before he declared his candidacy on late-night TV. Some claim he’s a Hollywood lightweight, but I’ve heard that before (Ronald Reagan). Some dismiss him as a Southern simpleton, but I’ve heard that before (George W. Bush). And I’ve even heard some claim he has a wealth of sexual...

So I come across this piece over at Real Clear Politics, which tries to sort out this whole "Thompson doesn't dazzle and therefore must go NOW" business, and I get to the money quote: "If you have the intelligence to see which rules are real and which are fake, the respectfulness to follow the real rules, and the guts to break the fake rules - you can get ahead in this world. In fact, people will love you for breaking the fake rules." I must admit up front that this follows a Bob Dylan reference about breaking fake rules in...

There are few people more profoundly different from me than Sen. Fred Thompson. I am, or so I have been told, a high-energy New York Italian-American. He is a laid-back Tennessean. I root for the Yankees. He couldn’t find Yankee Stadium even if his plow horse knew the way up the Major Deegan blindfolded. I come to an opinion quickly. Fred takes his time to look at all sides, study the implications, review the options and then proceed with the dedicated focus of a laser. He is what New Yorkers may describe as “folksy,” and by doing so they miss...

When Fred Thompson finally joined the presidential field last month, Newsweek greeted him with a cover story that bored into the essential question about the man: Is he too lazy to win? The answer seems to be yes, and, for evidence, the article cited Thompson's reluctance at the Minnesota State Fair to meet the sculptor of the Butter Princess, a 90-pound female bust carved from pure butter. He apparently wanted a strawberry milkshake instead and had to be coaxed into greeting the dairy sculptor. It was, Newsweek decreed, "a small but telling moment," a reminder of doubts about Thompson's willingness...

"Helped Themselves a Lot Tonight: Fred Thompson" - National Review "We had been waiting for any speech, any debate appearance, any event with Thompson to be a 'wow, that was fantastic.' Well, tonight was that moment we've been waiting for." - National Review "Fred Thompson delivers the first blow..." - ABC News Political Radar "Fred going on offense." - Politico "Thompson revved up." - Time "Kudos to Fred Thompson for coming out swinging tonight." - Townhall "He [Fred] ought to get serious points for guts." - National Review "'If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend...

The great white hope, their Savior, the next Reagan, the actor, no fire in the belly, the staff turnovers, the uhs, the Guccis, the lobbying, more uhs, the too-late entrance, the ups and downs of his campaign, the constant predictions of this is it, the make it or break it debate, and yet he's still here. He's still at least second in most polls and even first in some. He has always been a top-tier candidate even prior to his official entrance into the race. But why? Why is Fred still doing so well if he hasn't started a firestorm?...

Here's my anonymously sourced, second-hand Fred Thompson story that confirms the conventional wisdom. Takes place at a dinner in Washington last winter. Thompson is sitting next to a Hollywood insider who asks him, Why weren't you interested in being president of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America)? Look, Thompson says. Dick Wolf (creator of "Law and Order") pays me a lot of money to work two days a week. Why would I work for less money and work six days a week? Okay, says the insider, I get that. Then a few weeks later comes the news that Thompson...

First impressions are supposed to be 90 percent of politics. If that's the case, Fred Thompson should have a decent shot at the Republican presidential nomination. The impression he created in Tuesday's Republican debate in Detroit wasn't that of a dominant figure or a replica of Ronald Reagan. But he came across as likable, knowledgeable on issues but not wonky, and unexcitable. So Thompson passed the test of whether he could run with the big boys - Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain - in the Republican race. That was the only big thing that happened in the debate....

Fred Thompson may not yet have won the hearts and minds of Republican voters in the United States. But give the GOP presidential candidate this much - he knows who runs the government of Canada. "Harper. Prime Minister Harper," Thompson said, without hesitation Tuesday when asked during a Republican all-candidates presidential debate to name Canada's leader. That Thompson correctly answered the unexpected question saved him some mild embarrassment before an audience of Republican supporters at the CNBC debate in Dearborn, Mich. But it'll likely do little to quell larger doubts about a late-starting presidential campaign that has struggled to meet...

Jeri Thompson: The woman behind the man Naperville-raised Jeri Thompson is GOP hopeful's biggest cheerleader Recent months have seen Jeri Thompson painted a variety of ways in the press, from doting mom to trophy wife. She says she knew that would happen, but because she has granted few interviews, it can be hard to tell who she really is. The Sun had an exclusive opportunity to get to know the 41-year-old Naperville native a little better one afternoon last week. She sat down to talk before attending a major Chicago fundraiser for her husband, Fred Thompson, 65. The recently...

Here's how Jeri Kehn Thompson felt when she learned her husband, the former senator named Fred, had decided to run for president: “I felt so sick. I was depressed. I didn’t want to throw my husband to the snakes.” We learn this and more in a kind of coming-out interview in People magazine, coming out today. It's titled "No Trophy Wife" because, absent any information to the contrary, many in American society make assumptions about a 65-year-old man being married to a beautiful woman 24 years younger. The story opens with the former Jeri Kehn in sweatpants and ragged nails...

In South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Fred Thompson leading Rudy Giuliani 24% to 20%. That’s little changed from a month ago when Thompson held a 23% to 21% advantage. Mitt Romney has moved into third place and is now supported by 15% of South Carolina’s Likely Primary Voters while John McCain is barely in double digits at 11% support. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee earns 3% of the South Carolina vote while four other candidates split 5% and 22% are undecided. Sixty-three percent (63%) of the state’s Republican Primary voters say that Giuliani...

Conventional wisdom is hardening around the proposition that Fred Dalton Thompson is too lazy, ill-prepared, tired, old, lackluster, inexperienced, inconsistent and bald to make a successful run for President. Of course, conventional wisdom rarely gets anything right. When it does, it's only by accident. In this case conventional wisdom is not just wrong but comically so. Thompson will win the Republican nomination for two reasons. First, he's a very impressive candidate. Second, there's no realistic alternative. He will win the general election for the same two reasons. Let's start by considering the Thompson's Republican competition. John McCain's candidacy may not...

Conservative Republicans disenchanted with their presidential options dream that Fred Dalton Thompson is the Great Right Hope for 2008. Fans of the 65-year-old actor and former Tennessee senator call him a Southern-fried Ronald Reagan clone with impressive name recognition and a folksy appeal who can unite the party - and beat Hillary Clinton. It won't be a cakewalk for Thompson, who, after several false starts, will launch his candidacy Thursday via his I'mWithFred Web site. He's starting unusually late, has had trouble raising cash and has been soporific in recent testing-the-water outings. "The wow factor is gone," a Republican operative...

Democrats pin 2004 hopes on folksy charmer By Andrew Buncombe in Robbins, North Carolina 10 November 2002 Like many in Robbins, Cecil Hackney has a ready solution for a bruised and bewildered Democratic Party looking for someone to lead them to victory – North Carolina's Senator John Edwards. "I think he could be the next president, given the state of things now," said Mr Hackney. "I think Johnny could hop in there and we'd see. He would be good. He is a good man." Though not a household figure, Mr Edwards has been a name on the lips of Washington...