is Fred dead?

Is the Thompson candidacy looking less like a sure-thing and more like a has-been? The rumor around these here hills was that Fred Thompson was going to throw a big party on the 4th of July and turn from a might-run into an all-out candidate. Well, the 4th came and went and there were fireworks on the heels of The 1812 Overture to remind us of the glorious War of 1812 in which we won our independence, but no Thompson announcement to send all the big and little politicians of Tennessee into hoots of ecstasy.

Maybe he's waiting until football season or something.