by Marie Sanz
DES MOINES - Actor and former senator Fred Thompson officially started on Thursday his campaign for the Republican nomination for president, inviting comparisons with Ronald Reagan.
The charismatic television and film actor waded into the same waters as candidates who have been campaigning for months: in Iowa, where many US voters get their first close-up looks at candidates in small groups that gather in homes, schools and churches.
"All begins in Iowa," he told the ranks of his supporters, who chanted, "Go, Fred, Go!"
Candidates of both parties have criss-crossed Iowa, from home to fire hall and back. Thompson, 65, said he is ready for "frank conversation," with the voters "to serve the country that I love."
The craggy-faced actor, who appeared in the film "The Hunt for Red October" and on television as a tough, New York City prosecutor in "Law and Order," promised to defend the constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the US borders, which at times, immigrants and people plotting attacks have crossed undetected.
Thompson, 65, said, "I'm ready to lead that fight."
He counts on his folksy ways to charm voters in largely rural Iowa -- although he served as a senator from the southern state of Tennessee, also largely rural and conservative.
"I still have the same common-sense conservative beliefs," he said. "I don't know how to do it any other way."
His bedrock conservative belief: "Basic rights come from God and not the government." This point of view from the hinterlands allows him to denounce what some perceive as Washington's distance from the voters.
He announced late Wednesday that he would run, ending months of speculation and false starts, during the Tonight Show on NBC, the same television network that carries "Law and Order."
Supporters in Iowa said his late start did not represent a handicap.
After all, he is the only candidate that most US voters have seen on film and television.
He also joins the Republican field in second place, according to some voter preference polls, after the party's leading contender Rudolph Giuliani -- even without a political team in place in Iowa.
"It's not too late for Fred, he's got high name recognition, can have a very legitimate campaign," said Don McDowell, of the federation of Iowa Republican students.
There is a "parallel with Ronald Reagan. There is a longing for those days," he said.
A retiree, Connie, said Thompson has the cut of a leader: "He's a big guy, deep voice, charismatic, straight arrow from the start, you can trust him."
Thompson repeated the ultra-conservative message he outlined in his official announcement: opposing abortion and illegal immigration, supporting gun ownership and continuing the war in Iraq while cutting taxes.
After his gambit in Des Moines, he will spend the following two days plowing across the rest of the state in his campaign bus, emblazoned with his slogan: Security, unity, prosperity" and will head for New Hampshire and North Carolina on the southern US east coast.
ms/kd/rlp
09/07/2007 01:50 GMT