Fred Thompson, a former Tennessee senator and “Law & Order” actor, will take a step toward a formal presidential candidacy next week, several officials with knowledge of the plans said Wednesday.
Thompson will form a “testing the waters” committee, which will allow him to begin raising money and hiring staff without officially committing to a White House bid. The creation of the committee, to be called “Friends of Fred Thompson,” will be paired with the start of his first major fundraising push.
The articles say Thompson will announce the exploratory committee possibly as early as this Sunday, in time for him to hold a one-day campaign fundraising event, a la Mitt Romney, on June 4th to kick off his fundraising efforts. Also, more rumors of when he will officially announce he is a candidate:
Thompson is discussing plans for a campaign swing through various early primary states in late June, and is considering several options for a formal announcement should he ultimately decide to enter the race. They said that one scenario under discussion, among others, would have him officially announce his candidacy over the July 4 holiday.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Bets on how long it takes FDT to flame out? I’ll bet by Iowa he’s an afterthought. Plenty of sizzle, still haven’t seen the steak. Not when he was in the Senate. And not now.
What is he running on, besides being a Southerner? His lifetime 84 ACU rating?
I’m glad he’s entering now, so we can this Fred flirtation over with prior to the campaign hitting it’s stride.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Fred Thompson will be our next president Fredo, then we’ll see what you think of him then, i think
he is going to surprise alot of people, including yourself. Good luck Mr.Thompson!
Bryan
May 30th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Run! Fred Run!
On a more serious notes, having him in the race for real will stir up things in the Top 3. I am all for this because this is the only way to get many people to look at each candidate closely. It will be like on the Democrats side, where Obama, Edwards and Hillary, on surface, looks the same. You havbe to dig in deeper to see what they all really are about. I think we will see the same thing on Republicanic side with Fred jumping in. This is always a good thing.
And I won’t count too much on the previous polls because I do not think it is a common knowledge that he mostly certainly is running. But wow, I wonder how McCain is feeling since they both are good friends. Would he attack Fred like he did with Mitt, especially if he surge ahead of McCain! If he does, then it will end up hurting McCain more then that people know he is acting like crab in a bucket full of crabs.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Bryan,
If he’s our next president, it will mean that Hillary/Obama/Edwards are not, so I’ll sleep easy. But I still disagree with your premise.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Fredo,
Well only time will tell, and it will be fun to watch and see how he does, i just really have a feeling that he will do really well, especially in Iowa and South Carolina, and perhaps Florida as well, he just needs to get going
and not be too late getting started.
Bryan