When God-o-Meter checked in with a Fred Thompson advisor shortly before he official declared his candidacy, it was told that Thompson, whose infrequent church attendance has been much remarked upon, would not try to make believe he was deeply religious. Fast forward to this morning, when Thompson scored the only standing ovation of his speech before the Washington Values Voter Summit with this line:
People ask me, ‘What would you do in the first 100 days in office?’ I don’t really know. But I’ve said to my wife that I know what I’d do in the first hour: Go into the [oval] office and pray for the wisdom to know what the right thing to do was.”

What a difference a few months—and the threat of losing major Christian Right support—makes. God-o-Meter had heard that Thompson was talking to evangelical leaders about his faith in private, but this is the first major public sign of the effort.

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