Why Fred?

According to sources close to the Fred Dalton Thompson exploratory committee, Thompson will announce his candidacy for president next week. It has been a long time coming.

Q: How is it that someone who isn't even officially running can be so high in the polls (and leading in some)?

A: He is the only candidate who understands that winning the GOP nomination requires energizing the conservative base.

95% of the GOP politicians in Washington just stopped reading this post. Why? They don't get it. They listen to their overpaid consultants and errant polling instead of listening to the people. The consultants said to push through the illegal immigration amnesty bill. The people who have nothing of it.

The GOP consultants have also given us the current, miserable crop of presidential candidates. The only conservatives in the group (Huckabee, Tancredo, Hunter, Brownback, and Paul) have little to no chance of getting the nomination. Again, thanks to the consultants. So we're left with the moderates - Giuliani, Romney, McCain.

Enter the Southern Gentleman - Fred Thompson. The closest thing conservatives have to Ronald Reagan. Thompson supports lower taxes, smaller government, the war in Iraq, and has called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a "pirate". He has a firm, deep voice but is soft-spoken and very personable. His face recognition is very high due to his career as an actor in movies like The Hunt For Red October, Diehard 2, and popular television series Law and Order.

Thompson is well-liked and is one of the few Republicans who stands a chance of beating the Democratic nominee, whomever it may be.

Come next Thursday, the face of the GOP will change. Fred Thompson will unify and energize the conservative base again. His charm and "personality factor" will win the hearts of enough moderates to hand him the nomination without too much of a battle.