According to Fox News’ Carl Cameron, Thompson was initially aiming for a Veep nomination, but got swept up in the blog swarm and decided to run for President outright:

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.

Those insiders have now lifted the conditions on our conversations. From March to August of 07 through postponed announcement days, staff changes, firings, resignations and general disarray the Thompson camp was stunned by the incredibly positive response and didn’t really know how to manage it. The trial balloon soared mighty high and he found himself being dragged into a race that he was not even sure how to run.

He took third in Iowa and Third in South Carolina, after which his aides openly suggested the #2 slot on the ticket. The circle has been closed, and Fred Dalton Thompson is waiting to see if he gets the call from the eventual nominee.

He has not said who he will endorse. He is friends with John McCain. But if he doesn’t throw his support behind anyone …it makes it easier to be picked by everyone.

Emphasis, mine.

AllahPundit has some thoughts on this that are worth a look.

It’s quite possible this is true. The Thompson campaign certainly behaved like they weren’t sure about what to do, what with all the “he’s running” announcements that were always being dangled but never quite seemed to happen. They may have been caught off-guard by the positive response.

If Fred’s intention was to run for Vice President, and not actually President, then I think it’s wise that he drop his campaign. The last thing we need is someone who, eight years from now, would retire instead of running for his own term. We have a Vice President now who won’t run for office and that leaves the party without a defacto leader when the President retires from office next year. It also saddles us with some candidates that are far from ideal.

On the other hand, former Vice Presidents seem to make lousy Presidents when they’re elevated to that office themselves. There’s something about the office that’s degrading and destroys a person, I think. Look at all Presidents we’ve had that later became President. Nearly all of them were below average as President in their own right. Truman and Roosevelt only avoided the problem, I think, because they weren’t Vice President for very long when they rose to take over the Presidency, and thus the damage wasn’t yet done.

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