After Fred Thompson withdrew from the Republican Presidential nomination race, an interesting post appeared at Cameron's Corner of Fox News:

Back in March of 07 at the CPAC convention in DC several former Fred Thompson Congressional staffers told me Fred Thompson was thinking about a run. Some of his Tennessee cronies had been talking him up too.

I reported first that he was eyeing a White House bid. At the time several insiders told me OFF THE RECORD that it was largely a trial ballon to guage his popularity and float his name as a possible vice presidential nominee. I was sworn to silence.

Read the rest at the link above. It would explain a lot. For instance, it is the opinion of many political observers, including me, that Thompson failed to capitalize on the instant popularity of his "trial balloon" about running last spring. Even undeclared, he was moving up in the national polls and attracting broad support among conservatives. An entry by Memorial Day would have rode the momentum to fast fundraising, and he might have been far more competitive than he was.

But if Cameron is correct, we can see Thompson's people were totally unprepared for the enthusiastic reception the very rumors won. They didn't have the beginning of a national campaign in place because they hadn't even thought of it. And, evidently, Fred dithered over it too long.

By the time of his entry on Labor Day, much of the viral enthusiasm had already passed. Fred missed the wave, and never got another.

Of course, in some quarters, there is talk of dirty reporting. Via Ace:

Over at an update at Hot Air, there's a conspiracy theory a-brewin' that Carl Cameron's report is a hit, owing to the fact that a buddy of his, formerly of FoxNews, was hired and then fired by the Thompson campaign. I guess the idea is that either Cameron's lying to avenge his friend, or his friend is pushing false dirt on Thompson for vengeance.

Problems: Supposedly Cameron heard this not when Fred was hiring people, but last year at CPAC, and furthermore he heard it from mutliple "insiders."

His whole post is at the preceding link. I find this unlikely. It's not much "revenge" to tell the story after Thompson has withdrawn from the race. And the story fits the facts rather well, answering one of the biggest questions about his candidacy: why it took him so long to make up his mind and get going.