Fred Thompson: Still Not Really Running
Fred Thompsonisn'tofficially running for president, but he is acting exactly like everyone whoisrunning for president (not raising enough money, firing staffers left and right, dooming his party). Except he can't run ads yet on the teevee or in "newspapers" so all he can do is be on Fox all the time and also run a website where he fights with Michael Moore and other people whose comical girth negates any insight they may claim to have.
Now, theTimesclaims he will join the race officially "around Labor Day" -- maybe he was waiting for Rove to be free?
Or maybe he was holding off on announcing so that NBC could continue playingLaw & Orderreruns and he could continue collecting his fat royalty checks.
Thompson has certain FEC rules about raising money and "testing the water" he has to abide by as a non-candidate candidate but the FEC doesn't know how the internet works so he can get away with operating his crummy website where fans can watch videos of Fred Thompson sitting in leather chairs in sitting rooms full of leather books mumbling ominously about how he'll destroy us all, and also they can send him money. One of Thompson's advisers is a former FEC commissioner, so he can get away with a lot.
Now he's going to Iowa to continue being "above" this mythical "fray." We're kind of hoping he'll keep testing the water for another year and a half or so, because he longer he holds off, the more time there is for John Cox to take control and crush the rest of the GOP field, while playing a bitchin guitar solo.