President-Elect Fred Thompson Closer To Announcing His Candidacy
On March 11, just a week before, Thompson had appeared on Fox News Sunday and told Chris Wallace that he was giving "serious consideration" to running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Ever since, advisers on other campaigns have tried to figure out how he'll affect the race if he runs.
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After an hour, Thompson and Gillespie--currently chairman of the Republican party of Virginia--rose and left the restaurant. Ten minutes later, Thompson walked back in with former senator Bill Frist. They were led to a different table, but Thompson's waitress was the same. She laughed as she took his new order. Thompson says this second lunch was unplanned. Although he and Frist talk daily, the two Tennesseans met this time by chance. Finding they both had gaps in their schedules, they spent the next two hours at Café Promenade talking about a Fred Thompson for President campaign.
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"We thought we had to get it out early," says Frist, "in the sense that he's going to be announcing."
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Thompson says he came to respect George W. Bush during the 2000 campaign because of his plan to reform Social Security. Congressional Republicans considered the plan a political liability, and it went nowhere. Thompson says that although it was only tinkering on the margins of real reform, it was a good start. He won't share his own plan--"I'll roll that out at the appropriate time"--but the general principle he articulates sounds like a political risk.
There you have it, sounds about as close as one can come to announcing a candidacy without actually making it official. I still haven't made up my mind about him. I think he would be a good candidate, but I don't know if he can win. I want a conservative candidate that can win. The one thing he can do, is bring more attention to the conservative candidates that are already in the race. Brownback, Hunter, and Huckabee have been floundering at the bottom of the polls. You could probably throw the "other" Thompson in there, Tommy Thompson, but I can't see myself supporting him. People keep complaining there is no conservative candidates, but apparently they can't see past the top 3 useless candidates of Giuliani, McCain, and Romney.
