It looks like we have that in Fred Thompson, politician turned actor turned politician turned actor turned politician (I bet we hear somebody try to call him a flip flopper). With great thought, he waited and sounded out whether or not he would be a viable candidate. Contrast that with other candidates who couldn't wait to declare. His feelers were greeted with a draft Fred movement and it quickly got rolling.
I admit I'm very excited by his entry into the race, he was my favorite senator to watch during hearings and my late mother and I both had thought him Presidential material. Some have faulted him for being "lazy" while in the Senate, but the man is a thinker. He doesn't knee jerk react, he considers things first - which is a rarity in the modern short attention span society we live in. Even his testing the waters was done with planning, his much younger and better looking wife is a Republican campaign consultant and was looking for a way to raise his profile in Washington last year. Can't get much higher than running for President!
Oh and a footnote about Jeri Thompson: Fred was divorced from his first wife in 1985 and first met her in 1996, they were married in 2002. I've run into ugly rumors being spread that she broke up his first marriage. Unless she has a time machine, it is impossible for this to be the case. Yes she is much younger, but she wasn't a child and is an accomplished attorney herself, so consider Fred to be a very lucky dog. I do.
Now is Fred a good conservative? This question is being asked a lot and I would call him a Reagan conservative. But what's a Reagan conservative? I categorize it as being dead center in the mainstream of the Republican Party, the group that is rarely heard from, what with the radical social conservatives and liberal/moderates shouting loudly at each other. But what I really like about Fred is that he is a Federalist who believes in limited government. Here are two quotes (via Wikipedia):
"[It] provided a basis for a proper analysis of most issues: "Is this something
government should be doing? If so, at what level of government?"
"Our
government, under our Constitution, was established upon the principles of
Federalism -- that the federal government would have limited enumerated powers
and the rest would be left to the states. It not only prevented tyranny, it just
made good sense. States become laboratories for democracy and experiment with
different kinds of laws. One state might try one welfare reform approach, for
example. Another state might try another approach. One would work and the other
would not. The federal welfare reform law resulted from just this process."
"Federalism also allows for the diversity that exists among the country's
people. Citizens of our various states have different views as to how
traditional state responsibilities should be handled. This way, states compete
with each other to attract people and businesses -- and that is a good thing."
This is what will appeal to voters fed up with an ever expanding and corrupt government, this is what our country needs.
Fred Thompson has very Reaganesque approach and will appeal across a wide spectrum, as he understands the way government should work and also the dramatic challenges the U.S.A. faces worldwide. With a disarming charm and killer wit, Thompson resembles Ronald Reagan and that has the Democrats worried -- and well they should!
I never expected to endorse or support a Presidential candidate this early, but Fred is the real deal and I am completely behind him. If you want this country to get back on the right track, check out his website, http://www.imwithfred.com/