New York Daily News: Thompson's Candidacy

Editorial, New York Daily News ~ There are those inclined to sneer that Fred Thompson ultimately has not much more than Hollywood star power going for him. Could be. But then, Americans didn't elect Ronald Reagan simply because he used to be that nice man on "General Electric Theater," and Arnold Schwarzenegger is not governor of California just because people liked him so much in "Conan the Destroyer."

Committed Fredheads, for their part, are sure that what they've got in their man, a lawyer and former U.S. senator, is a genuine pure-conservative alternative to the other Republican presidential candidates, one who is certain to give Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney at least a few cold sweats.

Well, maybe yes, maybe no. At the very least, Thompson's impending candidacy does immediately reenergize a race that has, let's be honest here, settled into a sort of stupefying torpor after all these umpty-ump months - and brings new light to several ongoing campaign issues. Thompson is absolutely pro-life, period, no waffling about it. He is solidly pro-Second Amendment, period, no dithering. He's a gung-ho war on terror man, a no-nonsense border security man. America is about to find out whether Republicans lean more toward Thompson's unabashed purity on social issues - or toward the practical executive experience touted by Giuliani and Romney.

To date, Thompson has played his cards cannily, and he walks into this party with Favorite New Flavor all over him. American politics has, of course, seen his likes before. Thus, Thompson's serious test starts now. Voters will make up their minds soon enough whether he's just another pretty face.

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