So far the the anticipated Fred Thompson juggernaut has proved to be anything but.  And from where I sit the style:substance ratio tilts way too far toward the former.  Granted we are more than a little charisma starved after eight years of W, but that doesn't mean we should forsake the substance part altogether.   

As I said when murmurs of his candidacy started, before he gets the time of day from me he has some serious explaining to do on his role in McCain Feingold .  Laura Ingraham approached him on the subject in an interview and some who heard it came away far from assuaged. 

One is James Bopp Jr. who penned a column at Townhall.com  The closing graph says it all;

There was no more adamant supporter of campaign finance reform and the regulation of political speech and issue ads than Senator Thompson. His support was not reluctant; it was enthusiastic and repeated. He actively and enthusiastically supported regulation of and, ultimately, total prohibition of corporate and labor union issue ads, which he never viewed as a "mistake." The issue ad prohibition was not added by others, as he claimed, but was an essential feature of the campaign finance proposals he co-sponsored, voted for, and diverted his own Senate committee's investigation to justify. In short, Senator Thompson devoted much energy in the Senate to gutting the First Amendment.

Ouch. This is not the first reference I've seen that this bill was almost named McCain-Feingold-Thompson.  That one could support a law like that and call himself a conservative is something straight out Orwell's Ministry of Truth.  You can't act that into consistency no matter how talented you are.

It is still way too early to pay that close of attention to anyone but at some point I will read his position papers.  If it is full of the revisionist crapola mentioned above he is out of contention, even though, the last time we elected an actor, it really didn't turn out all that bad.  (Those of you who appreciate irony can dwell on that while contemplating Hollywood's current crop of "intellectuals")    

So far as this Heartlander is concerned nothing short of Big Fred's outright repudiation of that assault on free speech will get my vote for the GOP nomination.  The general?  Well that's different.  Higher stakes, fewer choices.  But still, even our worst option is better than their best - - who at this point seems to be Bill Clinton's wife, with whom, to be sure, we need never concern ourselves about an overabundance of charisma. Ever.