MSNBC’s scouting report on candidates in the fight for the White House.

By Adam Nagourney

NEVADA, Iowa - Twenty-four minutes after he began speaking in a small restaurant the other day, Fred D. Thompson brought his remarks to a close with a nod of his head and an expression of thanks to Iowans for allowing him to “give my thoughts about some things.”

Then he stood face to face with a silent audience.

“Can I have a round of applause?” Mr. Thompson said, drawing a rustle of clapping and some laughter.

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“Well, I had to drag that out of you,” he said.

Mr. Thompson is a former United States senator, television actor and Watergate investigator. His entry into the presidential race was highly anticipated by many Republicans, who saw or hoped to see in him outsized political talent and a commitment to conservatism that would enliven a Republican field that many found lacking.

But as Mr. Thompson campaigned in Iowa this week, he was something other than the dynamic presence that some in his party have been yearning for. Iowans saw a subdued, laconic candidate who spoke in a soft monotone, threw few elbows and displayed little drive to distinguish himself from his opponents.

Mr. Thompson told few jokes and, while an easygoing presence, did not appear to have much interest in the small talk that is a staple of retail campaigning. As he defined his candidacy, Mr. Thompson spoke in broad generalities about the conservative principles that he said had informed his political views — in particular, federalism and cutting government spending — and led him to run for president.

In the process, he often lulled audiences into the kind of stillness that engulfed the room when he finished talking at the “Lunch With Fred Thompson” in Marshalltown.

“On prosperity, I have a real novel approach, a real creative approach,” he said in Coralville the other night. “Let’s continue doing what works and quit doing what doesn’t work in this country. Tax cuts work.”

NBC video Thompson's slip-ups

Oct. 3: The public is getting to know the '08 hopeful, and so far, the ex-actor's performance has been a little rough. Nightly News

Turning to what he said would be a second priority of a Thompson administration, he said, “High, high, high on our lists of concerns for anybody who would think about becoming president of the United States is the security of this nation.”

For Mr. Thompson, this is the start of a second and arguably critical chapter of his campaign after a much-delayed — and in the view of many Republicans, inauspicious — announcement tour in which he seemed unversed in the kind of issues that routinely confront presidential candidates. Although he continues to do well in national polls, he did not show any particular strength in fund-raising in his campaign’s opening months, and he has done little to alter the basic dynamic of the Republican race.

Still, that race remains remarkably fluid, and on this trip Mr. Thompson showed some signs of developing as a candidate. For the last several days, he has been vigorously attacking Democrats for trying to increase government spending and defending President Bush’s veto of a proposed expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.