US:On the internet sites where conservatives gather to read and chat each day, Fred Thompson, the as-yet-unannounced Republican presidential candidate, has been laying out his positions on dozens of issues with little public notice and plenty of rhetorical flair.
The actor, who plays the district attorney in the hugely popular TV series Law and Order, has been hinting for months that he is about to throw his name into the ring to take on a Republican field dominated by the liberal former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, and the fading former Vietnam veteran and maverick senator, John McCain.
The Virginia Tech massacre, he said online, showed that students should be allowed to carry guns "to protect themselves on their campuses", and he said the university's ban on legal guns may have contributed to how long the shooter was able to keep killing.
Scientists who insist that global warming is ruining nature he compared to those true believers four centuries ago who insisted that the earth is flat.
"Ask Galileo," he said.
As for the US Congress's recent attempt at an immigration overhaul, that was nothing more than a "legislative pig" with lipstick that hid the failure of the US to secure its borders. "A nation without secure borders will not long be a sovereign nation," he warned.
The musings seem to constitute Thompson's early effort at assuring the core conservatives of the Republican Party that he is one of them - despite his past run-ins with the bloc as a US senator who supported campaign finance reform and opposed federal limits on malpractice lawsuits and attorneys' fees.
"They were wildly popular," said Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of the National Review Online, where three-dozen commentaries by Thompson have been posted since he first started testing the presidential waters in March. "It was a great way to introduce himself. He had just the right balance of red meat and substance to feed a conservative audience - at least as an opener," she said.
But Thompson's writing could prove problematic in a general election, where he would have to win over moderate voters.
"Today, everything is out there forever, and you don't have any luxury of claiming there was a misunderstanding," said Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist.
"If a campaign is putting some of these comments out there, they are going to have to live with them for the rest of the campaign."
Mr Rollins knows the benefits and risks of a Hollywood-actor-turned-politician using a "commentary campaign" to burnish his conservative credentials before a run for the White House. He worked for Ronald Reagan, who for years used regular radio commentaries and columns to lay out his vision for the US before running for president.
Thompson mostly writes his own articles, often borrowing material from the commentaries he gives on ABC Radio as a frequent contributor to the Paul Harvey show, aides said.
In addition to his articles on National Review Online, Thompson has posted to the Townhall.com blog and placed podcasts on RedState.com, including a three-part, issue-oriented interview.
Thompson's attempts to curry conservative favour come as his efforts to raise money and assemble a nationwide campaign staff have experienced growing pains. He finished June with just over $3 million (€2.2 million) raised, putting him well behind the top contenders.
On Tuesday, Thompson moved aside Tom Collamore, the man he had picked to assemble his campaign. That decision also prompted the immediate departure of the research director.
Several sources close to the campaign said Thompson's wife, Jeri, had lost confidence in Mr Collamore and was exerting increased authority over campaign decisions.
Thompson's writings seem certain to appeal to key elements of the Republican base.
"Let me ask you a hypothetical question," Thompson wrote in defending Israel's military responses during the Palestinian conflict.
"What do you think America would do if Canadian soldiers were firing dozens of missiles every day into Buffalo, NY? . . . I can tell you, our response would look nothing like Israel's restrained and pinpoint reactions to daily missile attacks from Gaza."
Thompson also derided Congress's failed immigration legislation, demanding that its supporters "explain why putting illegals in a more favourable position than those who play by the rules is not really amnesty". - (LA Times-Washington Post service)