Thompson Announces Candidacy on Leno

Thompson Announces Candidacy on Leno

Fred Thompson officially entered a wide-open Republican presidential race Thursday, vowing to invigorate a dispirited GOP and promising to thwart another Clinton from capturing the presidency.

The former Tennessee senator harkened to the GOP glory days of 1994 when he and other Republicans seized control of Congress and established an equal counterpoint to Democrat Bill Clinton in the White House. Now an official candidate for the Republican nomination, Thompson promised to return the party to better times.

"In 1992, we were down after a Clinton victory," Thompson said in a 15-minute Webcast that laid out the rationale for the candidacy he also declared on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno.

"In 1994, our conservative principles led us to a comeback and majority control of the Congress. Now, you don't want to have to come back from another Clinton victory. Our country needs us to win next year, and I am ready to lead that effort," he said.

Thompson also swiped at his leading Republican rivals, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, without naming them, saying: "In 1994, when I first ran, I advocated the same commonsense conservative positions that I hold today."

Thirteen years ago, Giuliani was a New York mayor who espoused liberal-to-moderate positions on social issues and endorsed Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo. Romney was a moderate challenging Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in liberal Massachusetts.

Today, some conservatives question Giuliani's and Romney's credentials and Thompson sees an opening for his candidacy.

Thompson, 65, enters an extraordinarily fluid race four months before voting begins. While Giuliani leads in national polls, Romney maintains an edge in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Overall, Republican voters have expressed less satisfaction with their choices than Democrats, and Thompson, who ranks strongly in GOP surveys, is maneuvering to become the favorite of a GOP base that is searching for someone with right-flank bona fides who can win in a general election.

His quest won't be easy.

As he prepared to join the campaign, Thompson was plagued by lackluster fundraising; high-profile staff departures, including some prompted by the deep involvement in the campaign by his wife, Jeri; and less-than-stellar performances at campaign events. He also has endured repeated questions about his career as a lobbyist, his thin Senate record and his record on abortion.

Going forward, he faces not only finance and organization hurdles but also the challenge of living up to his supporters' sky-high expectations. They have painted him as the second coming of Ronald Reagan and the would-be savior of a Republican Party demoralized after electoral losses last year at all levels of government.

After months of playing coy, the veteran actor launched his candidacy Hollywood style and with a multiphase campaign roll out. He confirmed his bid to Leno in Los Angeles "I'm running for president of the United States" while his eight rivals gathered in New Hampshire to debate without him. Then, he released the online video. A tour of early primary states begins Thursday afternoon in Iowa.

On Leno's show, Thompson called Giuliani, Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain formidable but added: "I think I will be, too" as he rejected the notion that he was jumping in too late. Poking at his rivals, who have been running since January, he added: "If you can't get your message out in a few months, you're probably not ever going to get it out."

In the online video, Thompson emphasized his longtime adherence to states' rights, limited government and individual liberties. He also countered the perception that he is unwilling to do the hard work necessary to run for office, much less serve as president. "I'm going to give this campaign all that I have to give," he promised.

Thompson also portrayed himself as capable of addressing "grave issues affecting the safety and security of the American people and our economic well being."

On foreign policy and national security, he said: "The specter of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of our worst enemies continues to grow, and still we have yet to really come to terms with the nature and extent of the threat we are facing from radical Islamic terrorism."

"Iraq and Afghanistan are current fronts in this war and the world watches as our will is tested," he continued. "We must do everything in our power to achieve success."

On domestic issues, he called for reforming Washington, criticized a politicized Congress and bemoaned "a bureaucratized government that is increasingly unable or unwilling to carry out basic governmental functions, including the fundamental responsibility of securing our borders against illegal immigration and enforcing our laws."

"I do not accept it as a fact of life beyond our power to change that the federal government must go on expanding more, taxing more, and spending more forever," he added.

An actor for decades, Thompson is perhaps best known as the gruff district attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's "Law & Order," and for his roles in more than a dozen movies.

During his 1994-2002 Senate tenure, he was considered a reliably conservative vote. However, he strayed from the party line on a few issues, including advocating for campaign finance reform.

Thompson also spent many years in Washington as a lawyer and lobbyist. He has faced repeated questions about his lobbying work for a family planning group that sought to relax an abortion rule, and for former leftist Haitian leader Jean Bertrand-Aristide.


Fred Thompson Joins Political Race

HOLLYWOOD - Veteran Hollywood actor Fred Thompson joined the race for the White House on Wednesday by formally declaring his bid for the Republican nomination.

The former Tennessee senator and ex-Law & Order actor had kept supporters in suspense all summer while he waited to declare his candidacy.

But during an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Wednesday night and a Webcast shortly afterwards, Thompson finally made it official.

The 65-year-old is regarded as the most plausible threat so far to Rudy Giuliani, who was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

Thompson is now embarking on a five-day tour of crucial early primary states, including Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire.

Fred Thompson

As an actor and former United States Senator, Fred Dalton Thompson had been both widely-recognized in prominent onscreen roles and active in important historical events. A former litigator, Thompson was plucked from private practice by former Tennessee senator Howard Baker in 1973 to serve as the Republican counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee. Thompson made an immediate splash, asking Richard Nixon’s former deputy assist Alexander Butterfield the famous question, “[A]re you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?” Since then, Thompson achieved moderate success in all three fields of expertise – acting, politics and litigation....

Full Biography

As an actor and former United States Senator, Fred Dalton Thompson had been both widely-recognized in prominent onscreen roles and active in important historical events. A former litigator, Thompson was plucked from private practice by former Tennessee senator Howard Baker in 1973 to serve as the Republican counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee. Thompson made an immediate splash, asking Richard Nixon’s former deputy assist Alexander Butterfield the famous question, “[A]re you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?” Since then, Thompson achieved moderate success in all three fields of expertise – acting, politics and litigation. But it was his film and television persona – one incidentally not far afield from his political self – that made him a recognized face, but by no means, a household name.
Thompson was born on Aug. 19, 1942 in Sheffield, AL and raised in the small town of Lawrenceburg, TN by his mother, Ruth, and father, Fletcher, a used car salesman. After attending public schools, Thompson earned his bachelor’s from Memphis State University in 1964, then obtained his law degree from Vanderbilt University in 1967, working his way through school selling shoes, driving trucks and working at a bicycle factory. After his work on the Watergate committee, Thompson returned to practicing law in Nashville, where he took on the case of Marie Ragghianti, the former chair of the state’s parole board who was fired by then-Governor Ray Blanton for blowing the whistle on corruption in the prison system. He soon uncovered a clemency-for-cash scheme run by Blanton that forced convicts to pay for their freedom; a case that eventually landed the governor in jail.

The story was later turned into a novel by Peter Maas, inevitably attracting the attention of Hollywood producers who made the feature “Marie: A True Story” (1985), starring Sissy Spacek as the beleaguered Ragghianti. Thompson was originally brought onto the production as a consultant, but the producers quickly saw that he should play himself, which he did to great effect. Thompson was surprised to find himself a wanted commodity for other roles, thanks in large part to a stern, heavy-browed visage that projected unquestioned authority. In “No Way Out” (1987), he played the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, then appeared in “Feds” (1988), a lame comedy about two women (Rebecca DeMornay and Mary Gross) trying to make it in the FBI. After a brief turn as Maj. Gen. Melrose Hayden Barry in “Fat Man and Little Boy” (1989), a dramatic look at the making of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, Thompson had perhaps his widest exposure as an admiral aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier in “The Hunt for Red October” (1990).

Thompson continued having a banner year in 1990, appearing as a tension-fueled chief air traffic controller at Dulles’ Airport in “Die Hard 2: Die Harder,” followed in quick succession with “Days of Thunder” and “Flight of the Intruder.” Continuing to play the voice of authority, Thompson was a sensible lawyer in the John Hughes’ flop, “Curly Sue” (1991), then broke form with his performance as a skeptical, hard-edged attorney in Martin Scorsese’s remake of “Cape Fear” (1991). After strong supporting roles in “Thunderheart” (1992) and “Aces: Iron Eagle III” (1992), Thompson turned to television with made-for-TV movies, including “Keep the Change” (TNT, 1992) and “Bed of Lies” (1992). He next had a meatier role as American Express CEO James D. Robinson III in “Barbarians at the Gate” (HBO, 1993), a dramatic look at the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco for a staggering $25 billion.

Thompson gave a brief, but impressionable performance as a politically-driven White House chief of staff who challenges the effectiveness of an aging Secret Service agent (Clint Eastwood) to protect the president (Jim Curley) in Wolfgang Peterson’s gripping “In the Line of Fire” (1993). After roles in “Born Yesterday” (1993) and the dismal comedy “Baby’s Day Out” (1994), Thompson bowed out of acting for a spell and ran for Al Gore’s vacated Senate seat, easily winning the special election with 60 percent of the vote. Though he appeared sporadically in films and on television throughout his two terms, Thompson left the Senate in 2002 to once again pursue acting full time. He enjoyed a short-lived stint as District Attorney Arthur Branch on the surprisingly failed “Law & Order: Trial by Jury” (NBC, 2004-2005), a role he established in several episodes on the other three “Law & Order” series. Then in early 2007, Thompson announced a second go-round in politics, raising the possibility of a run for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.