The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an unlikely place to launch a bid to become leader of the free world, but the former Tennessee senator and Law and Order star Fred Thompson isn't the first 2008 presidential candidate to kick off his or her campaign in a non-traditional setting.

Rudy Giuliani announced his candidacy on Larry King Live; Mike Huckabee did it on Meet the Press; Hillary Clinton formally threw her hat in the ring via a short web video; and John Edwards made his intentions known with off-the-cuff remarks in the front yard of a devastated house in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. But while the medium used to announce candidacies may be changing, the message is about the same as it was the day humans began rejecting clubbing in favor of persuasion as a way to seek positions of leadership. For the most part, it always includes three key points:

1) Here's my story.
2) My story is our nation's story.
3) Here's what I think the next chapter of that story should be.