Jaywalking with Fred

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Jay Leno, once a great stand-up comedian, made a political choice when he became host of “The Tonight Show”: He made himself non-threatening and folksy. Fred Thompson, who officially announced his candidacy for president on Leno’s show Wednesday night, is a different breed: Folksy but threatening.

Thompson, speaking like this was the second act of a “Law & Order” episode, called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “a fellow who is not put together well upstairs.” He also said: “The enemy is ruthless. Al Qaeda is here in this country. National intelligence estimates tell us that. They are strong. They’re trying to get their hands on nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.”

As you can see, there was none of that Schwarzenegger joie de vivre in his sullen trip to Jayville to make a previously announced surprise political announcement.

Rather, this was just the first official stop in what Thompson exudes as the enormous chore of running for the highest office in the land. Forget about all the months of waiting; by the time Thompson said those eight words — “I’m running for president of the United States” — you’d already had to sit through a segment of “Jaywalking.”

Should he have been in New Hampshire, rumbling in debate with his GOP opponents? Thompson is banking on the nation’s indifference to the cacophony, playing both sides of the cynicism fence — refusing to engage in the media circus of a TV debate on the same night he uses an entertainment show to join the circus.

The appearance coincided with the release of a video on Thompson’s campaign website, www.Fred08.com, in which Thompson appears to be standing in the library of his estate in the wilds of either Tennessee or Bel-Air.

There you can see on display the world-weary, been-there, done-that plain-spokenness that Thompson has fine-tuned in TV and movies playing government heavies and in real life as, um, a government heavy.

Say this, Thompson no doubt spoke to a bigger TV audience Wednesday than his GOP opponents did. And while Thompson was cooling his jets in Jay’s green room, his opponents were in New Hampshire debating — or, more accurately, trying to swat away — Ron Paul.

“We’ve dug a hole for ourselves and we’ve dug a hole for our party!” Paul yelled about staying the course in Iraq. “We’re losing elections and we’re going down next year if we don’t change it, and it has all to do with foreign policy, and we have to wake up to this fact.”

Meanwhile, in Burbank, Thompson shook Leno’s hand and walked offstage, toward Iowa.

-- Paul Brownfield