California Conservative

No, he hasn’t declared himself a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination but he’s started putting together a campaign staff:

Fred Thompson, the “Law & Order” actor and former senator from Tennessee, has moved beyond pondering a bid for the White House and begun assembling the nucleus of a campaign should he decide to run, according to people involved in the effort. Thompson has not yet decided to seek the Republican presidential nomination. But “he is getting more serious every day,” said an adviser familiar with Thompson’s plans.

When Fred Thompson gets in, I believe that it’ll essentially be a two man race between Rudy and Fred Thompson. I think Fred Thompson would essentially vaporize any support that was going to Mitt Romney. I think it would cut into John McCain’s support, too. I believe this because Romney couldn’t realistically position himself as the only true conservative in the race. Thompson has higher name recognition and a reputation of being more conservative than Romney. I think that much of McCain’s support comes from people who think that Rudy can’t win because of his positions on social issues. Until now, I think McCain’s supporters thought he and Rudy were the only people capable of defeating Hillary. That obviously wouldn’t be the case if Thompson jumped into the race.

Though Thompson has shown well in some polls since he said he was actively considering a presidential bid, the hurdles to such a late start are many. And some people who worked with him in the Senate question his willingness to do the brutal work of a national campaign. But friends and advisers say Thompson has been buoyed by the response so far at a time when many Republicans are openly expressing disappointment with their presidential field.

“The outreach to him has been so overwhelming that he is now starting to talk to people to really calibrate what it would take to run a successful campaign,” the adviser said. “He’s talking to some of the top unaligned strategists and fundraisers. He’s said: ‘I’m seriously considering it, and I’m happy to hear your thoughts and ideas.’”

Last winter, King Banaian attended a Michael Medved event in the Twin Cities. One of the things I told King then was that I thought Fred Thompson would make a great candidate because of his command of the issues, his personality and his speaking ability. I told King then that I could picture him carving Hillary up in a debate without raising his voice.

I don’t think it’s fair to judge Thompson with Ronald Reagan even though that’s something people have started doing. Here’s my take on that. Yes, they both have an acting background, which leads to them both being good communicators. Yes, they both held political office before running for President. I suspect that they have similar positions on most issues, too.

That said, Ronald Reagan’s presidency changed the course of history in a pretty dramatic way. Reagan’s policies led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall. All his policies were aimed to that end. When he chose to fight guerrilla wars in Central America, the goal was to thwart the Soviet Union’s influence there. When he supported the freedom fighters in Afghanistan, the goal was to thwart the Soviet Union’s influence in southwest Asia.

Reagan also took over when the economy was in shambles. He turned it into the envy of the world. Some say that we’re still riding that Reagan wave. I don’t disagree.

Finally, we’re reaping the rewards of the Reagan Justice Department. Rudy Giuliani, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito were some of the people who worked in the Reagan Justice Department.

Suffice it to say that a Thompson administration could have a significant and positive impact without having the dramatic impact that the Reagan administration had.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Ronald Reagan, Economy, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Rudy Giuliani, Soviet Union, Berlin Wall, Afghanistan, John McCain, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 1:34 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Economy, Election 2008, Foreign Policy, Judiciary, Middle East, Military, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.