The Latest on Fred's Announcement

Dear Friends,

On September 6, 2007, Fred Thompson will be announcing his intention to run for President of the United States with a webcast available to millions at www.imwithfred.com. The launch of the video will be followed by a five-day campaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. On the evening of the 6th, there will also be a National House Party, during which there will be a conference call with Fred.

We enter this campaign in a strong position. Fred is consistently near the top in the polls, and conservatives across the country have put together the closest thing to a draft in recent presidential campaign history in an effort to bring about this day. The next few weeks will only serve to build upon those efforts, with house parties, visits to the early primary states, and a homecoming in Lawrenceburg, TN on the 15th. To view the dates and locations of Fred's bus tour, please click here, and check back soon for more information on attending one of these events.

By announcing via webcast, Fred is able to take his consistently mainstream conservative message directly to the voters, who are already responding to that message with a strong upwelling of grassroots support. The webcast and the following campaign tour will play to Fred’s strengths, a consistent record of conservatism, his ability to clearly spread his message, and his ability to work with and connect with Americans from all walks of life. Be apart of this historic occasion by signing up to host or attend a house party today.

Sincerely,

Bill Lacy
Manager, Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc.

FULL SPEED AHEAD, FRED!

Great Interview with Captain Ed...

Read the Transcript at Captain's Quarters!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!! (*UPDATED)

And now, what we've all been waiting for:


Fred Dalton Thompson will tell his supporters that he is running for president today in a 4 p.m. conference call with 800 to 1,000 elected and party officials from around the country, a source close to the campaign said today.

On the call, Thompson will detail his plans for the future, which are expected to include an appearance on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" on Wednesday night -- even as his rivals debate on Fox -- and could be followed by a formal announcement the next day.

The confirmation of Thompson's plans end a months-long flirtation with the public about whether the former senator and Hollywood actor would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency.


UPDATE: Campaign officials now say there will not be a 4:30 conference call for the media. Rather, the campaign will put out information for the press in a statement. Stay tuned for details later this afternoon.

Leo Adds: It would appear that Thompson will be formally announcing one week from today (Thursday, Sept 6th)

The former Republican senator and “Law & Order” actor will release an announcement video on Thompson’s Web site, in the morning and then follow up the big news with a five-day tour of early primary states. The Associated Press is reporting that the tour will conclude with a big homecoming event in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., on Sept. 15.

The Sept. 6, announcement comes the day after the rest of the Republican field is participating in a debate in New Hampshire. Mr. Thompson is to appear on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” that night instead.

Full speed ahead, Fred!

My Impatience paying off?

I made a post out of frustration yesterday, asking Fred to "Shit or Get off the Pot."

I was rightly admonished by a fellow Fred Head, but was still a bit discouraged.

No more:

A round of applause, please, for former Virginia Sen. George Allen, who finally got likely GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson to hint when he plans his big announcement. Filling in for Richmond's WRVA morning host Jimmy Barrett, Allen just came out with it, asking the Law & Order star what's up.

Said the Fred, who's been testing the political waters: "Well, the water is pretty warm. I like the temperature a lot." He also told Allen, "It won't be very many more days" before he declares.

During the five-minute chat, Thompson addressed the complaints that he is taking too long to make up his mind.

"This is not an attempt to be cute or game the system," he promised. Thompson said instead that he's just working on more of an old school schedule, when candidates didn't announce until the fall before the election year.

And he said that running for president isn't something he's planned all his life. "I'm doing in a few months what people have taken a long, long time period to do," he said.

Okay.

Full Speed Ahead, Fred!

****UPDATE****

Fred will have a speech carried live on C-Span tonight at 6:00pm Central.

There is scuttlebutt afoot that he may just announce. Others with some amount of cred say that he will do so by video.

Stay tuned.

Fred Thompson to be at the Minnesota State Fair

From Marty Seifert:

Greetings!

It's my honor to host a State Fair visit by former Tennessee Senator, actor, and - possible - presidential candidate Fred Thompson at the Minnesota State Fair. Fred will be making the rounds with me and you can catch up with us at 11:45 at the Minnesota Republican booth.

As you may have heard, hundreds of Republican activists gathered at the St. Paul River Center to cast ballots in a non-binding Presidential Preference Straw Poll on Wednesday. Thompson won a narrow victory, although his name was not even on the ballot. As Thompson is not an officially announced candidate, voters had to physically write in his name as their preferred candidate.

Click here to view the Straw Poll results.

It was an exciting event and the margins were close. This shows that the opinions of the Republican Presidential candidates in Minnesota are mixed and up for grabs.

Please join us at the State Fair on Monday if you can!

Date : 8/27/2007
Time : 11:00:00 AM 1:00:00 PM
Location : MN GOP Booth (Link)

Thank you again,

Marty Seifert
Republican Leader
House Republican Campaign Committee

Fred, it's time to shit or get off the pot.

Dear Mr. Thompson,

As you can see by the fact that I am the originator of this blog, I am a huge supporter of yours. Your ideas on Federalism, on Pro-Life Issues, on Second Amendment Rights, and the War on Terror, including Iraq, suggests that your ideas are a near--hell no--a perfect fit with what I value.

The problem sir, with all due respect, is that your coyness in declaring your candidacy is leading many who support you (including myself) to be a bit skiddish. While your hesitancy to declare may have paid dividends in the drone that was this past summer's Presidential scene, I fear that the law of diminishing returns on your strategy may have a way of catching up to you with a vengeance if you do not declare your candidacy soon.

Make no mistake, Mr. Thompson. You're still my guy. But I want my guy to make a difference. I want my guy to win.

With all due respect, don't blow it.

Thompson to shake up the status quo

David Broder had the chance for a two hour conversation with Fred, and had this to say:

The approach Thompson says he's contemplating is one that will step on many sensitive political toes. When he says "we're getting a free ride" fighting a necessary war in Iraq with an undersized military establishment, "wearing out our people and equipment," it sounds like a criticism of the president and the Pentagon.

When he says he would have opposed adding the prescription drug benefit to Medicare, "a $17 trillion add-on to a program that's going bankrupt," he is fighting the bipartisan judgment of the last Congress.

When he says the FBI is perhaps incapable of morphing itself into the smart domestic security agency the country needs, he is attacking another sacred cow.

Thompson repeatedly cites two texts as fueling his concern about the country's future. One is "Government at the Brink," a two-volume report he issued as chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee at the start of the Bush administration in 2001 and handed to the new president's budget director as a checklist of urgent management problems.

The difficulties outlined in federal procurement, personnel, finances and information technology remain, Thompson said, and increasingly "threaten national security."

His second sourcebook contains the scary reports from Comptroller General David Walker, the head of the Government Accountability Office, on the long-term fiscal crisis spawned by the aging of the American population and the runaway costs of health care. Walker labels the current patterns of federal spending "unsustainable" and warns that unless action is taken soon to improve both sides of the government's fiscal ledger -- spending and revenue -- the next generation will suffer.

"Nobody in Congress or on either side in the presidential race wants to deal with it," Thompson said. "So we just rock along and try to maintain the status quo. Republicans say keep the tax cuts; Democrats say keep the entitlements. And we become a less unified country in the process, with a tax code that has become an unholy mess, and all we do is tinker around the edges."

Thompson readily concedes that he does not know "where all those chips are going to fall" when he starts challenging members of various interest groups to look beyond their individual agendas and weigh the sacrifices that could ensure a better future for their children.

But these issues -- national security and the fiscal crisis of an aging society with runaway heath-care costs -- "are worth a portion of a man's life. If I can't get elected talking that way, I probably don't deserve to be elected."

Thompson says he feels "free to do it" his own way, and that freedom may just be enough to shake up the presidential race.

Should be an interesting ride, to say the least.

Go get 'em, Fred!

A big reason to support Fred!!

As in "Fair Tax"

(CNSNews.com) - Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee -- the not-quite-yet Republican presidential candidate -- says the next president "should enact a fundamental overhaul of the tax code that makes it fairer, simpler, and more pro-growth."

Thompson mentioned that there are a "number of ways to do that," and he said the "principles and ideas found in the Fair Tax are a good place to start."

Just in case you haven't heard of the Fair Tax, click here for more. If you read the plan, you'll know that the Fair Tax is a way out of the current utilization of the tax code for social engineering purposes.

Fred Thompson is on the right side of so many things...

It will be a great day indeed when he formally announces his candidacy!

Fred and the question of money...

Many in the leftosphere and in the "Ron-Paul" osphere have been proclaiming the Fred Thompson campaign dead in the water, due to Thompson's raising "only" 3.5 million during the month of June.

But given that Fred is not yet an official candidate, was that amount really that deficient?

Not so, says the Arkansas Republican:

(1) In his first exploratory month, Thompson raised well over $3.5 million - more than 10 times what Giuliani did in his first month and about 3 times what McCain raised. Here’s the comparison to the other top three Republican candidates during the initial exploratory month (from the time they started taking money):
· Giuliani - total raised in first month (Nov. 15-Dec. 15): $258,660
· McCain - total raised in first month (Nov. 14-Dec. 14): $1,130,351
· Romney - raised more money in his first month, but largely because he organized his big-dollar donors ahead of time to give himself a bit splash and he loaned his committee at least $850,000 weeks before filing his statement of candidacy on Jan. 3.

(2) Under FEC rules, a candidate is not allowed to raise funds “in excess of what could reasonably be expected to be used for exploratory activities”. Thompson has raised an appropriate amount for an exploratory phase. Considering these rules, it is interesting that . . .
· One month ago, the DNC attacked Thompson (in the Politico) for potentially raising more money than he’d need for the exploratory period and said they’d “argue aggressively” against him. The DNC rolled out the hit piece at Daily Kos claiming that Thompson was “Raising Funds Beyond What You Need To "Explore"” and the liberal activist outlet CREW said Thompson “appears to have raised far more money than necessary…”
· After being attacked for raising “too much” money, Thompson is now being attacked for not spending his entire Exploratory focus on raising money.

(3) An inquiry to the Fred Thompson campaign revealed that they have not even used any direct mail or telephone fundraising and their expenditures have been very low meaning that an estimated 80% of funds will be available for the primary.

So, Ron-Paul-ites and DNC-- don't be so quick to turn out the lights, cause the Fred Thompson party is far from over.

As a matter of fact, it's only just begun.