Fred was in Stamford, Conn., tonight as the headline speaker at the annual Prescott Bush Awards Dinner (named for President H.W. Bush’s grandfather): 

Hundreds of state Republicans turned out Thursday for the party’s annual fundraising dinner to listen for signs that the pool of presidential hopefuls may have another contender.

But former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson avoided any discussion of a possible White House run and instead delivered a strong speech attacking Democrats and reminding his fellow Republicans of their GOP roots….. 

Thompson centered his message around traditional Republican policies of a strong national defense and a limited government.

“My friends, that’s the party that I joined and I bet you that’s the party you joined. I’m sure that’s the party our country needs tonight,” Thompson said. “We need to make sure that’s still our party. I think the biggest problem is the disconnect between Washington, D.C. and the people of the United States.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Former ABC News political director, and Time magazine’s new editor-at-large and senior political analyst, Mark Halperin, has posted a brief piece about Fred.

“… Thompson, 64, has vaulted in public-opinion polls to within striking distance of the leading Republican candidates. In the latest Time poll, he’s at 10%, matching Mitt Romney. …

The single most compelling feature of a Thompson candidacy would be his magnetism. A natural storyteller, he speaks with a relaxed cadence and unhurried confidence, peppering his remarks with language such as “fella” and “bad guys,” pausing expertly to make a point, relish an applause line, set up a joke.”

Read the entire article here.

Fred’s all over the news today, as talk about his potential candidacy continues to increase:

Numerous signs point to a Thompson candidacy, and a summertime announcement is widely expected, although people close to him caution that he has not made a final decision about running.

Never mind that he basically already is.

Thompson is hiring staff, speaking to conservative groups, writing online columns on topics of the day and staking out positions on issues like the Senate immigration overhaul. He also is testing his pitch on the Internet.

“It’s important to the future of this country that (Republicans) have somebody that can win in November,” Thompson said in a recent online interview. “People are looking for somebody who can talk straight to them. That’s what I hope I bring to bear.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Check out the new Weekly Standard article by Stephen F. Hayes about Fred’s dealing with Michael Moore and a future candidacy: 

When Thompson and his advisers talk about running a “different kind of campaign,” this is what they mean. They believe he can use the Internet–in videos, audio files, and written commentary–to communicate directly with voters. His message will be unfiltered and therefore somewhat protected from mischaracterization by a left-leaning press corps in Washington. Campaign events will be filmed and posted so that interested parties–in this case, very interested parties–can see for themselves whether a Thompson performance was actually “lackluster” or lackluster only in the eyes of reporters. It is all part of Thompson’s plan.

And Thompson is planning to run for president. His friends and advisers have moved on from the will-he-won’t-he talk of just a month ago. Now, they speak of an exploratory committee. Barring some new unforeseen obstacle, he will be in by late June.

Read the rest of the article here.

It sure was nice to open up the Sunday morning Washington Post and see an article about Fred - this one by Liz Garrigan:

Like voters everywhere, we Tennesseans want our politicians to be part professor, part John Wayne. But the top-tier candidates in the GOP field so far — John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney — somehow lack that magic merger of smarts and swagger, which is probably why nearly half of Republican voters say they’re still waiting for the right candidate. Well, their John Wayne is standing just outside the corral.

He is Fred Dalton Thompson, and while he’s no admiral, he has played one in the movies. The former senator is also the third man from our humble horizontal Southern state to be touted as presidential material in the past year, after former Senate majority leader Bill Frist and former vice president Al Gore. Thompson has yet to raise a nickel — or a presidential posse — but grass-roots Republicans from the East Coast to the West already see the man with the low drawl and the towering stature as their political savior.

Read the rest of the article here.

Fred’s scheduled to be the featured speaker this weekend at the National Restaurant Association’s 2007 Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago.  The title of his talk is ”Traveling in Strange Circles - From Watergate to Hollywood to the United States Senate to Law & Order”.

“We are honored to have Mr. Thompson at the 2007 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and look forward to sharing his insight into politics, Hollywood, foreign relations and life,” said William C. Anton, FMP, convention chairman for the 2007 Show, and chairman and founder of Anton Airfood, Inc. “Mr. Thompson continues the long Show tradition of offering opportunities to listen to some of our nation’s most influential elected and opinion leaders, to provide them with the insights they need to grow their businesses.”

Read more about it here.

Good opinion piece in Wall Street Journal about Fred’s successful, not-yet-official campaign:

Having watched the second Republican debate the other night, it’s clear to me the subject today is Fred Thompson, the man who wasn’t there. While the other candidates bang away earnestly in a frozen format, Thompson continues to sneak up from the creek and steal their underwear–boxers, briefs and temple garments.

He is running a great campaign. It’s just not a declared campaign. It’s a guerrilla campaign whose informality is meant to obscure his intent. It has been going on for months and is aimed at the major pleasure zones of the Republican brain. In a series of pointed columns, commentaries and podcasts, Mr. Thompson has been talking about things conservatives actually talk about.

Read the rest of Peggy Noonan’s opinion piece here.

Over 500,000 have viewed Fred’s video response to Michael Moore.  Read about it in this Washington DC Examiner article:

If you’re Fred Thompson, you’ve got to be encouraged about jumping into the race. In the wake of Tuesday’s debate among Republican presidential candidates, it was the former Tennessee senator who topped the field in YouTube views — and he wasn’t even participating.

Online intelligence firm New Media Strategies measured which candidate got the biggest YouTube bump from the May 15 debate in South Carolina. It also counted the number of viewers of Thompson’s video responding to Michael Moore, which was viewed online concurrently with the GOP debate.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Thompson’s video, in which he suggests that Moore might look into a mental institution, drew 598,600 viewers on Vimeo, YouTube and Google Video.

That dwarfs the most views from any moment during the debate. Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani’s exchange over Sept. 11 was tops from the actual event, with 16,904 views from online postings.

Mitt Romney drew 4,394 views from online postings; Paul alone got 3,273 views; John McCain, Giuliani and Romney on terrorism and torture drew 2,621 viewers. Even Mike Huckabee’s well-received joke about John Edwards’ hair only drew 365 viewers.

As you may have seen, Michael Moore – the documentary filmmaker (do you still call them documentaries when they’re based on lies?) – recently got upset about one of Fred’s articles.  After Moore challenged him, Fred responded by video. 

Check out Fred’s video response.

Fred’s moved up to 2nd place in a recent Harris Poll….

As primary season nears, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani remains atop the ranks of Republican presidential hopefuls. But an as-yet-undeclared candidate, actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, has elbowed his way into the top tier of potential nominees and now rivals Arizona Sen. John McCain in popularity, the latest survey from Harris Interactive shows.

Among those who said they expect to vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses, 38% said they would be most likely to vote for Mr. Giuliani. His closest rivals, according to the poll, were Arizona Sen. John McCain and Mr. Thompson, each drawing the support of 18% of the respondents. 

Mr. Thompson’s popularity comes despite the fact that he has not indicated whether he will actually seek the presidency….

Read the rest of the article here.