Why not?

UCLA Law Professor Stephen Bainbridge wonders why the GOP doesn't call on the great Fred Thompson to run in '08:

Fred Thompson's had an enviable career: successful lawyer, actor, Senator. Now he's a NRO columnist, weighing in on Bush's latest Iraq speech. Meanwhile, I keep thinking: the GOP did pretty well the last time it chose an actor to run for President. Why not go back to that well and draft Thompson? Compared to the leading choices - the flip-flopper, the old man who's probably a closet liberal, and the guy who probably can't win the nomination - Thompson looks pretty darn good.

Let's see what good ole Wiki has to offer on Thompson:

On November 8, 1994, Thompson was elected to the United States Senate to fill the unexpired portion of the term ending January 3, 1997, left vacant by the resignation of Al Gore, defeating six-term Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Cooper in a landslide which represented the most votes anyone had ever received for a statewide office in Tennessee history up to that point. Thompson took the oath of office on December 2, 1994. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Washington, D.C. ("while I was still unpacking my boxes," as he put it), Thompson was selected by the Republicans to give a reply to a nationally-televised address by President Bill Clinton. This was no doubt due to his acting background, but many pundits saw this as an attempt to groom him for an even larger political role. Thompson was easily re-elected in 1996 for the term ending January 3, 2003 over Democratic attorney Houston Gordon of Covington, Tennessee by an even larger margin than that by which he had defeated Cooper two years earlier. His name was regularly mentioned in the year 2000Vice President alongside the Republican Presidential nominee George W. Bush.



While in the Senate, he was chair of the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1997 to January 3, 2001 which conducted investigations into allegations China attempted to influence American politics prior to the 1996 elections (See: campaign finance scandal) and January 20, 2001 to June 6, 2001, when the reorganization of the Senate prompted by the resignation of James Jeffords of Vermont from the Republican Party changed the control of the Senate. Thompson then became the ranking minority member.

Considering his stance on Bush's speech last night, as noted by Instapundit, why not go ahead and through his name out there on all the polls:

In his address last night much of what the president said had been anticipated by the media — the additional troops, the understanding that he has with the Maliki government as to their responsibilities and so forth. But I was struck by a couple of things he said that indicated not just a change in tactics but a whole new attitude with regard to what's necessary. He’s taking the gloves off.



And, contrary to the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, instead of talking to Iran and Syria the president is taking them on too.



I'll bet that a lot of folks who support the president on this are asking themselves "what if we'd taken care of business this way years ago?"

My mother and I have talked in the past about the possibility of a Fred Thompson Presidential bid and I can assure everyone in America that he has at least one supporter for such a bid living in Augusta, WV. I, too, think that he could fair well, considering the alternatives.





Technorati Tags: 2008 Election

powered by performancing firefox