Making a Case for Fred Thompson in My Own Mind

There are many, many conservatives out there who are pulling for Fred Thompson to run for the GOP nomination. The reasons are understandable. He's a solid conservative without the "neocon" label. He's a likeable guy. He's got media savvy. He has tremendous presence and has an "authority figure" persona. He speaks, and people listen. He also strikes me as someone who has good morals, but isn't a "christian conservative", a term that the mainstream liberal press uses to vilify many right-wingers.

I've been searching pretty far-and-wide on Thompson, trying to get a handle on what his political views are, since he's the popular alternative candidate to guys like John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Guiliani (who I favor at this point among those actually running). So far, it seems that his stances are pretty much run-of-the-mill conservative ideology. Smaller government, no tax increases, pro-2nd Amendment, and so on...mostly things I can agree with. So I decided to read into his political career a little bit.

He served as Chief Co-Counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee as they investigated the Watergate scandal. In fact, it was Thompson who was responsible for Howard Baker asking the question of "what did the President know, and when did he know it." It's speculated that this question was a key element in bringing down Richard Nixon. While serving in the U.S. Senate, Thompson chaired the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1997-2001, which investigated the campaign finance scandal of 1996, in which China was accused of attempting to influence American political elections.

He's a former lobbyist for several large corporations, has served on several bipartisan counsels, and is a registered foreign agent. These qualities strike me as someone who can work "across the aisle" and knows how to get his agenda across at the same time.

Thompson definitely seems to have the credentials to be taken seriously as a contender for the GOP nomination. I would like to see what he would bring to the table in the upcoming debates, so I hope that if he decides to run, he makes the decision soon.

I'm favoring Rudy at this point, but I'm leaning more and more towards Thompson each day. Maybe I'm getting caught up in the hype a little bit, but the man does peak my interest as a possible candidate.