DES MOINES, Iowa - Former Sen. Fred Thompson was wading through a sea of people at the Iowa State Fair on Friday when a man stopped in his path with a pointed question.

The man wanted to know, once and for all, when would Thompson go "off the deep end" and finally declare an official run for president?

"I'm in the deep end," Thompson quipped. "The waters feel pretty good."

There were no official proclamations during Thompson's first foray into the first-in-the- nation caucus state since rumors of his candidacy began.

But with a quick speech surrounded by the obligatory hay bales and a stroll up the fairgrounds midway, he left no doubt that he's about to throw his hat in the ring. He even told one well-wisher he might want to borrow the man's straw hat for just that purpose.

Thompson, a former Tennessee senator better known for his television and film acting, told an elbow-to-elbow crowd under a hot sun that he didn't give a hoot about political analysts who say he's defying strategic convention and waiting too long to enter the crowded Republican field.

"I wasn't there when they made these rules, so I'm not abiding them," he said. "We've got plenty of time."

Thompson is positioning himself to launch a bid sometime around Labor Day, hoping to fill a perceived void in the GOP contest.

"I think they're so unhappy with the other candidates right now, they're looking for a 'white knight,' " said Gene Blanshan, a farmer and curious Democrat who wandered over to hear Thompson's fairgrounds speech on Friday.

A recent poll suggested that fewer than one in five Iowa Republicans were happy with their presidential choices. But that was before last week's Iowa GOP straw poll in Ames, where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney scored a double-digit victory and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee claimed new momentum with a second-place showing.

Thompson didn't contest the nonbinding poll, but he still managed to eke out a slightly higher showing than another nonparticipant, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani - the national Republican front-runner.

Still, with less than five months until the first Iowa caucus votes are cast, Thompson is running out of time to better define himself and catch up to the others in campaign organization, fundraising and voter support.

Until now, he has benefited from the curiosity factor, as demonstrated by the large crowds of journalists and fair-goers who chased him up and down the midway on Friday.

He tried to end a bit of the mystery by using a folksy tone to introduce himself as a real-life former prosecutor - not just a tough-talking make-believe prosecutor on the NBC drama Law & Order.

And he pitched himself as a conservative who's willing to take on tough issues that don't get enough attention, such as the need for entitlement reform before the government goes "bankrupt," or the need to rebuild the war-weary U.S. military.

Television commentators rushed to portray Friday's appearance as an actor's "premiere" in a new role.

But his script started with humility: "If I were you, I'd be asking, 'Who is this guy and why is he here?' "

He talked of his "mama and daddy." He used the verb reckon when talking about his former Capitol Hill colleague - and state fair tour guide - Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. He talked about his days as a prosecutor when he once went after "moonshiners" among others.

And he went out of his way to let everyone know he had never had an acting lesson before he stumbled into his first movie and television roles.

He's trying to portray himself as the real deal that Republican voters have been waiting for, a bona fide conservative.

He told reporters he'd work to overturn the landmark abortion-rights decision Roe vs. Wade. He said he'd tackle rising health care costs and a Medicare system that could drown in "a sea of red ink." And he talked tough on terrorism.

"We have to be stronger and tougher and more united than they are," he said, drawing applause.

If Thompson's first Iowa speech was short on specifics, he did offer the crowd a pledge: "We'll be seeing a lot more of each other."

And at one point during his fairgrounds visit, in a break from a live radio interview, he couldn't help comparing this new political drama to his work in Hollywood.

"The good thing about acting (is) you get another take," Thompson told WHO Radio's conservative talk show host Jan Mickelson off-air.

His show was a hit with some audience members, such as Ruch Larson-Hummel, who came all the way from Phoenix to see Thompson at the fair.

"The rest of them have already made fools of themselves," her husband, Dick Hummel, 66, interjected. 'We haven't heard this guy."

But Blanshan, the curious Democrat, said he wasn't worried about his party's chances if Thompson becomes the Republican nominee.

"It surprised me how little charisma he had, for a TV guy," Blanshan said. "Just from what I saw here today, I don't think he's going to energize people."

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