NPR: Report: Thompson Plans Run for President

Report: Thompson Plans Run for President

Looking out and seeing a field that lacks candidates with "real" conservative credentials, actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson plans to announce around July 4 that he will run for the Republican nomination for president, Politico reports. So watch for Thompson's well-known symbol -- a red pickup truck -- to start appearing in New Hampshire and Iowa.

The Weekly Standard reported around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday that Thompson would establish an official "testing the waters" committee on June 4 -- the day before the other GOP candidates meet in New Hampshire for their third debate. (Trying to steal a few headlines, perhaps.) That's the first step toward a run for president, and the Politico report takes a step beyond that.

The Latest Politics blog at The New York Sun says Thompson's entrance into the race is "clearly huge."

"A lot of conservatives have been struggling here to figure out where to go with a candidate that can keep the coalition together," a former presidential candidate who is now president of the nonprofit American Values, Gary Bauer, told me yesterday evening, referring to the GOP alliance among economic, defense, and social conservatives. "I think Fred Thompson has a fairly decent chance of emerging as the candidate that can do that."

The most recent poll at Real Clear Politics shows Thompson at 10 percent, tied for third place among Republicans with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

10:54 AM ET | 05-30-2007 | permalink

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