As reported by Race 4 2008‘s own Tommy Oliver (who broke the story this morning), Fred Thompson announced via conference call that he will officially enter the race September 6th. Redstate has the details:
…I’m here to tell ya Fred intends to be the next President of the United States, and he means to tell the FEC exactly that on September 6, 2007. At that time, the testing the waters phase will end, and an aggressive campaign will commence…offical and legal-like.
Fred will tell US about his plans, and explain just what he has in mind for this country via Web cast on that day as well.
Following that, Fred will take two tours across parts of America, winding up in his home town in Tennessee on September 17th for a “welcome home” party.
Fred Thompson plans to campaign on his strengths of “mainstream Conservatism”, and believes entering the race in such a strong position (uniformly 2nd in the major polls) will allow for a strong effort, starting right here with we grassroots folks that have helped him get this far.
Well, the real race begins September 6th folks…
Update: Jennifer Rubin opines on the Thompson quasi-announcement:
Thompson tells supporters the date is September 6. He’ll go on Leno and not do the debate next week. The “time to get off TV and run in the real world” cracks are starting. As for the decision not to face the press today a rival aide had this to add: ” Fred Thompson has spent the summer with one foot in the water and now in one more anti-climatic move his campaign is announcing by paper statement? One has to wonder it it’s not just the candidate who isn’t ready for tough questions – it seems to be his staff too.” That would be the “welcome to the race, pal” comment. I’m sure the opposition communication teams are practicing their favorite barbs for the September 5 debate to explain Fred’s absence. (“Still doing NBC TV?” or “Hasn’t had time to learn his lines yet?”)
August 30th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Just after the NH debate on the 5th. I’m still skeptical. I’ll believe it when I see it.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
That’ll effectively steal a lot of news coverage from the NH debate and shift it to him.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Also, I can’t wait for the real race to commence.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
The day after the debate?!
August 30th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
“Mainstream conservatism”?
So now we have a president who ran on “compassionate conservatism”, McCain is running on “common sense conservatism”, Huckabee is running as the “authentic Christian conservative”, and Thompson is the “mainstream conservative”?
Whatever happened to just conservatism?
Sheesh…
August 30th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
And honestly, the day after the debate? Way to prove everyone wrong who thinks you’re lazy and don’t want to campaign, Fred…
August 30th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I read his total fundraising for the year was 6 million. He will need to improve that considering the competion. He will also need to stand up to a debate, he can’t hide forever.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
No worries there Sampo,
FDT will have to face Romny & Rudy in a debate eventually. That should be very good to see.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Sheesh. No congratulations on our site being the first one to break this story? You guys are impossible.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Good for him! About time he jumps in the water. The big question here then is, was he too late? We will know how he will do, especially now that we have Huckabee in the picture with McCain, Romney and Guiliani.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Now Rudyites and Romneybots can unite on something, tearing up Thompson so that the real candidates can campaign
August 30th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Tommy,
Kavon mentioned that you broke the story this am.
If it means anything to you, congrats from cwpete.. Seriously, you must have or be a very good source for all thing FDT..
August 30th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Thanks!
August 30th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
When a sports team isn’t playing well, the most popular player with the fans is the backup. But often times the backup is put in to see what he can do, and surprise surprise he is no better. In this case the backup is Fred, and I’m not sure if he will be able to show he is worthy of “starting” or not.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Well, I’m glad to see him entering the race. I agree with others though that his entering a day after the debate doesn’t improve my opinion of him. But, now that’ll he’ll be in the race, we’ll be able to finally compare all the candidates, their values, positions, qualifications, and vision. And that’s a great thing for the party and conservatism.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Unprepared for the debate on the 5th, aye? Well, it’s hard to announce something that hasn’t happened over and over again. It is anti-climactic if no one can tell. Thompson likes to put himself in a seperate category than the other candidates, it has sorta worked so far, we will see what happens as that unique position is taken away and he has to act like a normal candidate.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Here’s another lead. CFG will release their report on Thompson soon. It has already been completed, and he will get very high marks.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Thompson needs to get in front of live TV for his “announcement” and then endorse McCain. I’d pay to see that.
He was a big McCain 2000 guy. He stands by his support of McCain-Feingold to this day and has few (if any) conservative edges over McCain.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
This just shows how lazy he is, skipping the debate and being afraid to answer any
real questions, pity, we were lead to believe he could have been such a good candidate.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
whimp! thompson is a whimp. the day after the debate. what a push over. whimp!
so he avoids teh hard work and preparation and then tries to steal the thunder of the winners the day after the debate.
seriously, this guy continues to dissappoint.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Fed up with Fred? Ride with Rudy
August 30th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I was really looking forward to comparing Thompson to the other candidates in a televised debate. It would have been a great chance to see how he measured up under that kind of pressure and scrutiny.
Now we’ll have to look for other opportunities to test him for general election viability. As the primaries keep getting moved up, we’re really starting to run out of time to play waiting games.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Well done Tommy.
Still got big doubts about FDT though. Would be nice to see him front up to a debate with other candidates.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I bet the press hardly covers this. Fred snubbed them all and they will remember. Did anyone else notice that Brit Hume just read the announcement and nothing more-no comment? Fred is a coward and doesn’t want to stand on the stage with the others. He’s announcing from Hollywood not from Tennessee. His speeches have been unimpressive and short. He has no ideas for the country. And I’m nice. You should read what ABC news has to say about him.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Decision2008/story?id=3538311&page=1
August 30th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
[...] that the announcement of the future announcement has taken place, the title for this blog post is somewhat more manageable. What’s interesting about this [...]
August 30th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
I guess the Fred Heads finally have something to be excited about. And everyone else shaking their heads as to why he feels it is best to dodge any debates with the committed candidates. So he is going to do a webcast. Is that because he has no group of core supporters, or that this way people can have a big party around their computers! His lack of excitement the past few months really makes it hard for me to be real excited about this.
August 31st, 2007 at 12:03 am
announce via a webcast only reinforces the idea that he is lazy
August 31st, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Since the September 5th debate is being mentioned frequently here, and some wonder if Fred would ever be in the spot with other candidates, I thought I’d supply the up-coming Republican debates: September 17th to be hosted in Florida by American Values Association with emphasis on issues that matter to the Value Voters. There also will be another one one September 27th, to be hosted by NBC, among others, in NH. Then after that, we have October 15th. I don’t know who hace committed to attend those, but here are the debates you can hopefully watch Fred doing his lines.