Fred Thompson and Jay Leno

Jay Leno has been promoting presidential candidate non-candidate Fred Thompson's appearance on The Tonight Show since last week.

Leno's been teasing that maybe Thompson would follow in Arnold Schwarzenegger's footsteps and announce his candidacy on the show.

Thompson didn't pull a Schwarzenegger.

No announcement.

No surprise there.

Thompson wore a light gray suit and a lilac shirt with a matching striped tie. At least that's what the color looked like on my TV. It may have been gray, but I don't think so.

He is one tall man!

Did he look presidential?

Not really.

Even former presidents don't look presidential sitting next to Leno. Of course, Jimmy Carter doesn't look presidential anywhere. He didn't look presidential sitting in the Oval Office.

Anyway, Thompson seemed very relaxed and very confident, unlike many of the candidates who appear on Leno's show.

I remember when John Kerry was on prior to the Iowa caucus. It was in late 2003. He was the middle guest. He didn't even rate the first slot. He came out riding a Harley. It was forced and weird -- a train wreck. At the time, I commented that Kerry was dead in the water. I thought he came off so badly on that show that there was no way I would have envisioned him as the eventual nominee.

I was wrong; not about Kerry's appearance, but about him winning his party's nomination.

But I digress.


The first segment of the interview was basically spent reminiscing. Thompson the young lawyer. Thompson the politician and first race against Al Gore.

Leno treated him more like Thompson the actor than Thompson the potential presidential candidate.

It was just typical chat and the commercial break came quickly.

The second segment of the interview was about presidential politics.

Leno said, "Why do you have to be so coy about it?"

That was sort of a snippy remark.

Thompson said, "It takes a long time when you haven't been running for president since high school."


Leno asked the big question: "Would you like the job of president of the United States?"

Thompson said, "I've never craved the job of president, but I want to do some things that only a president can do. So, the answer is yes."

There were loud cheers from the audience, but it didn't sound like the entire studio joined in.

Then Thompson hawked his website -- "And by the way, before I get killed, it's imwithfred.com if you want to help out a little bit. And you know, you can't have any shame in this business, Jay."


Leno questioned why Thompson has shifted between acting and politics.

"I put term limits on myself."

"I often say after eight years in Washington I longed for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood."

Leno asked, "What are 'Fredheads'?"

Thompson responded, "Beats me. It's an Internet phenomenon."

He explained that they're people who've encouraged him to run.

He said, "I love 'em, whoever they are."

Thompson mentioned Hillary Clinton as the likely Democrat nominee.

Then Leno, got into the Iranian issue.

Leno brought up Joe Lieberman's comment about taking military action in Iran.

Thompson said that we have a lot of friends in Iran and if we handled it right, the situation might take care of itself.

Leno tried to get Thompson to say that the Bush administration has made mistakes with Iran.

Thompson danced around that.

And that was it.

Iraq wasn't mentioned.

Immigration didn't come up.

Thompson didn't slide down the couch. He left after his interview was over.

It would have been nice if he stuck around for musical guest Toby Keith.

I wonder if that booking was intentional. Keep the Thompson supporters watching for the rest of the hour.

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A somewhat related story:

Following Leno, Tim Russert was a guest on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

They talked about the presidential candidates.

Russert seemed to think that Thompson was the strongest Republican candidate.

He was less certain about predicting the Dem nominee, simply saying it's between Hillary, Obama, and Edwards.

Duh.

The most interesting thing to come out of the Russert interview was that he was at Woodstock. It came up when O'Brien and Russert were talking about Al Gore's Live Earth concerts.

Russert at Woodstock?

That reminds me, although he was of age, Russert didn't serve in Vietnam. He didn't serve in the National Guard. No military service at all.

I guess I can picture Russert at Woodstock more easily than I can picture Gore there, but it still seems a little hard to believe.