This afternoon, along with what sounded like 5 gazillion other bloggers, I was on a teleconference with Fred Thompson. It was a bit shorter than I would have liked and I didn't get a chance to ask a question, but here's a round-up (Everything that follows is from my notes, not actual quotes).

Before Fred came on

We can't tell you who it is yet, but Fred has a huge endorsement coming up tomorrow.

Fred's opening statement

We've been all over the ground in South Carolina. The money is coming in quickly, I feel good, they know me here, and I am the clear, consistent, conservative. I cut taxes, we passed 4 straight balanced budgets, 100% pro-life record.

The Q&A Session

Q: 43% of voters in SC haven't made up their minds. What do you think? Are you seeing a lot of undecided people in SC?

Everyone I see ends up being for me, so they're not undecided for long. Some people try to remake their campaigns based on where they're running. I don't do that.

Q: Would you issue an executive order instructing Federal agencies to ignore earmarks?

Yes. If Earmarks haven't been debated on, they're not part of the law and the President has the authority to disregard those earmarks. I would do that.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your debate strategy?

I am going to keep it quiet on the debate. I don't want to show my hand.

However, we went from zero to third place in Iowa and we can do the same thing in SC. Retail politics will work here.

It may have been surprising to some people that I am not slick even though I have done TV. If it turns out I am too laid back for folks, then I am too laid back for Folks.

Some people have stereotyped me as lazy, so they've ignored all the work we did in Iowa and are doing in SC, now. It's not fair, but that's all you can expect from the media.

Are you going to do anything to change the media narrative in SC?

They will only be impressed with good results on election night. Until then, they're going to write me off.

In Iowa, I watched a panel of experts on Fox and every one of them said that McCain would come in third. Then the media told everyone I was quitting the race. That undoubtedly cost me some points in that race. But, I still beat McCain -- and they hardly made any mention of that.

Missed this question.

I will stand and fall based on who I am. I am not going to try to change to be who the media wants me to be. What did John McCain do differently? Nothing. Just one day, he was back in it doing the same things he did all along.

With McCain, the media picked him up and talked him up. Sadly, the media has a lot more power than we wish they did. You got to steamroll them in the debate.

I know that the other candidates labored in vineyard for a long while and I thing a lot of things happened around them, and they took off because of a cumulative effect of what they're doing. You just do what you have to do and wait to take off.

Mike Huckabee has gotten a lot of mileage out of Chuck Norris. Any plans to bring a celeb to SC?

Nope and I don't think a lot of people are voting for Huckabee because of Norris.

Do you think u would have done better if you got in earlier?

I don't know the answer to that question. We'll have time to look back on it some day. However, I am not sure that the campaigns need to be longer. Has it helped Rudy? Has it helped Mitt? Doesn't seem like it.

Hawkins' Note: If you want to have a real, honest to goodness, Reagan conservative representing the GOP in 2008, someone that you can be proud to vote for as opposed to just voting for the lesser of two evils, chip in a few bucks for Fred, check out Fred's website, and do what you can to push Fred Thompson.

South Carolina is the last, best, chance for movement conservatives to have one of our own representing the Party in 2008. If we can't raise Fred up on our shoulder there, conservatives are probably going to be in for one long, ugly, rough year.

Update #1 Here's a transcript.