More on Fred

Fred gets interviewed by USA Today, although the content of the interview itself is a bit...spotty. However, the paper does give some details as to why he decided to run and they rate his chances as pretty good given the disastifaction many Republicans are voicing over the current field.

""I can't remember exactly the point that I said, 'I'm going to do this,' " Thompson says, his 6-foot, 6-inch frame sprawled comfortably across a couch in a hotel suite. "But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: 'I'm going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it.' "

His late start carries some problems but also "certain advantages," he says. "Nobody has maxed out to me" in contributions, he notes, and using the Internet already "has allowed me to be in the hunt, so to speak, without spending a dime."

Thompson could reshape a GOP contest in which each of the three leaders has significant vulnerabilities and none of the seven second-tier contenders has broken through. Without formally joining the race — he's preparing to do that as early as the first week of July — Thompson already is placing third and better among Republican candidates in some national polls."

One of the things I like about Thompson is that he's his own man, and wants to campaign his way - smarter not harder, using the Internet and nontraditional media sources to get his message out. The response he crafted to filmmaker Michael Moore a couple of weeks ago was pretty classic - he videoed a quick response and posted it to the web, where it's had nearly 100,000 hits.

The article relates his decision in his Tennessee Senate campaign to chuck the advisors and drive himself around the state in his red pickup truck. The numbe rone thing I like about him are the campaign themes he is stressing - tighter borders, smaller government and lower taxes. Those are all issues I can get behind in a big way.

Washington Post also has an article here on Fred.