Stronger than Steele?
Earlier this year, after it became clear that the next Presidential cycle had indeed begun in earnest (much to our chagrin), Chris and I began discussing the candidates. Specifically, the Republican candidates, or lack thereof (we mainly laughed at the Democrats and believe that they will begin eating their own soon!). And in those discussion we soon realized that while a few have true conservative credentials (Brownback and Hunter), those few were at the bottom of the name recognition/popularity ladder.
We concluded that what we need is a big name personality, with good conservative and Republican pedigree. Given the name of this blog and the person to whom it is dedicated, we both immediately thought of Michael Steele. The parallels to Lincoln seemed too good: Relatively new to the national political scene; more of a self made man than a groomed politician, charismatic and popular locally but even more so nationally; ran for but lost the Senate seat from his state in a highly publicized race and suffered racial slurs and epithets while doing so. Perfect, right?
But a funny thing happened while we were trying to figure out if and how to A) convince Mr. Steele to run, and B) create and jump start a grassroots campaign... Fred Thompson's hat was tossed into the ring. Not officially, mind you, but with enough enthusiasm that it was evident that this was more than just mere speculation or wishfully thinking. His name obviously was raised as a trial balloon... a balloon that quickly, and without much effort, turned into the Goodyear Blimp.
While Michael Steele is a good man and would make a good candidate for many reasons, and would definitely help harken the Republican party back to it's "Party of Lincoln" roots, Fred Thompson can do that and more. He meets our conservative and Republican pedigree requirement and has big-time name and image recognition thanks to the fact that he is an actor on TV's Law & Order. Help the Republican party get back to it's conservative roots and remind people of Reagan because he's an actor? That is a political twofer!
So, if you are like us and would love to see Fred Thompson not just talk about running but actually declare as much, please go out and sign the Draft Fred Thompson 2008 Citizens’ Petition to help convince him.
I can't speak for Chris, but for me the only thing that would be better than having Fred Thompson as the Republican nominee for President in 2008, would be for Michael Steele to be his running mate.
Hmm... Thompson/Steele '08. Has a nice blue-collar, no nonsense ring to it, doesn't it?
