Fred Thompson doesn't have to be Ronald Reagan, he just has to be Fred Thompson.

Thompson Watch Update: Fred Thompson quits Law in Order. He will not return next season, leaving law in order in September.


Is Thompson running for President and is his next roll Ronald Reagan?



CNN columnist Bill Schnieder has a column out today on former Senator of Tennessee and Law and Order TV actor Fred Thompson titled: "Can Thompson play the roll of Reagan?"



Scneider writes in his column: Republicans say they're looking for another Ronald Reagan -- meaning a conservative who's also a winner. Some Republican contenders, like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, look like winners but their conservative credentials are under challenge. Others, like Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, are staunch conservatives but it's not clear they have broad enough appeal to win.






Schnieder seems to think that Thompson needs to play an acting roll to become president, but really the only roll Thompson has to play is himself.


Fred Thompson is not the next Ronald Reagan, nor does he need to be. Fred just needs to be Fred Thompson, he is a winner, if he runs.


Thompson is a conservative, a real conservative, that ran for the Senate in 1994 as a Washington outsider running on a platform of term limits. He remained a Washington outsider while in the Senate and got out of politics in 2002 because he was sick of the DC bologni sandwich they were serving for food.


Now Thompson is back, and still running as the Washington outsider that he has been for years. Thompson is not a career politician and that may be exactly what we need. Plus how can you not like a guy that comes out and says exactly what we are all thinking?


"You wouldn't think you'd have to make the lower tax case again, but you have to make it every day in Washington, D.C.," Thompson said at the Reagan Library.


He has strong criticism of the new immigration reform bill, which Thompson calls "amnesty with promises to do something about the border.''


"They don't get it,'' Thompson said, "that putting it on a piece of paper does not convince the American people any more that they will do what they say."


Here is my personal favorite:


"I think the biggest problem that we have today is what I believe is the disconnect between Washington, D.C., and the people of the United States,'' Thompson said.


More than ever Fred, more than ever...



Is he running?


There is no doubt in my mind Fred Thompson is going to run. He has made every indication that he is getting in the race. He is doing interviews, writing columns in newspapers, has hired a staff and is raising money. Today he told Law in Order he is quitting the show, but would not say he is running for president.



There is no doubt he wants in this race, and no doubt the money and support is there for him to get in.


As I told you yesterday sources say Thompson will announce in July that he is running. So, why wait until July? Because Fred Thompson, right now, is not running against "Rudy McRomney." He is running against Washington D.C. insiders and elitists. Thompson is playing the I am not a candidate card, while exploiting the Washington DC disconnect. It is brilliant... At a time when a overwhelming majority of the American people are fed up with both parties, this is a winning campaign.






In fact, this may be the most genius campaign strategy I have ever seen.


This is the campaign I would run, if I was running, with one addition, the FairTax plan.