Ex-Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson could announce around July 1 whether he’s running for president.

Thompson or emissaries have sent out feelers to strategists and pollsters, some of whom were involved with Steve Forbes’ 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns, according to people with knowledge of the discussions and to published reports. One of the ex-Forbes advisers named by the political Web site Hotline was respected Republican pollster John McLaughlin. He’s not working for any other candidate now.

Those familiar with Thompson’s deliberations are not 100 percent sure he is running, but the lawyer-turned-actor-turned-politician-turned-actor is keeping a heavy public speaking schedule, and he has said he’s interested in TV interviews.

At least three reasons make July an important month for him.

First, that’s the start of the next three-month fundraising reporting schedule. If Thompson were to announce in June, the fundraising clock would start ticking and a paltry quarterly report in mid-July could dampen enthusiasm – skeptics call it hype – that’s surrounded his deliberations this spring.

Second, Thompson is already on TV more than his potential rivals, first as a law-and-order district attorney in the NBC series “Law and Order,” and soon as President Ulysses S. Grant in an upcoming HBO movie, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

Should Thompson announce he’s running, his TV and movie career would go on hiatus. The broadcasting fairness doctrine and campaign money considerations similarly headed off the acting side of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he first ran for office. Why stop a good thing as long as your tease is getting more airtime than many of the announced Republican candidates are getting?

Third, Thompson needs time to deal with his multiple acting and business strands, including his radio commentary for ABC.

The attention paid to Thompson illustrates how fame and buzz are trumping experience in the 2008 presidential campaign. Thompson was in the Senate for eight years but was not considered a leader. Still, he shows third in Republican polls, ahead of ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has chief executive experience, and other ex-governors (Mike Huckabee, Tommy Thompson) with more political experience.

The Democrats seem to be devaluing political experience even more.

Their most experienced presidential candidates by career longevity are Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, who has been in the Senate for 35 years, and Connecticut’s Chris Dodd, who has been around for 27. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has the broadest experience, serving as a member of the House of Representatives, as ambassador to the United Nations, as energy secretary and as governor. Two administrations have called upon him for delicate diplomatic or hostage missions to two of the three members of George W. Bush’s “axis of evil” – Iraq and North Korea.

But in a May 4-6 USA Today-Gallup poll, none of the three men got above 2 percent support, far behind the less experienced Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in the first year of her second term; freshman Barack Obama, D-Ill.; and ex-Sen. John Edwards, who served just one term.

The latter three are the so-called “first tier” of the Democratic field. How did they get so designated? Through a media age concoction of notoriety, fame, Internet and TV buzz, money and a certain unique profile that seems to match the times (in Obama’s case, he brings a new face and a message of inclusion from a black candidate).

Among Republicans, Romney has not exactly lit a fire under primary voters, according to national polls, but the media granted him first-tier status on the basis of his experience heading the 2002 Winter Olympics, that he was a Republican governor of probably the most Democratic state in the country, and from his ability to raise a lot of money very quickly. Romney raised more money in one day in January than all but two of his GOP opponents.

Richardson is answering his second-tier designation with humorous ads, titled “Job Interview,” that stress his experience.

By contrast, Dodd has expressed frustration. At a political house party in New Hampshire earlier this year, Beth Fouhy of the Associated Press reports, Dodd said: “At one point, if I’d stood here with 25 years experience in the U.S. Senate, that would have been the end of it.” The presidency, he said, is no place for on-the-job training.