BY KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ
"Fred Thompson the next Ronald Reagan?” Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked at the top of his show two weekends ago. The question echoed what I’d been hearing for days from National Review Online readers and in conservative circles. (“Ask What Would Reagan Do?” and the survey [that is, my inbox] says Elect Thompson!)
"Wisely and humbly the 64-year-old former Tennessee senator dismissed the Reagan comparison as unwarranted. But Thompson didn’t rule out a run for the Republican nomination, saying he is 'going to leave the door open.'
"Without criticizing anyone now in the race (very Reaganesque!) the former McCain supporter (from 2000) told Wallace: 'I think people are somewhat disillusioned. A lot of people are cynical out there. They’re looking for something different.' Echoing Newt Gingrich’s protest of the length of the current presidential-campaign cycle, Thompson noted that 'the lay of the land in a few months will be different then it is today.' Last week in his Paul Harvey radio commentary (he’s Harvey’s back-up plan), Thompson homed in on 'competence' as what that conservative yearning is for (something it is safe to say NR would agree with him on).
"In a 'lightning round,' Thompson answered Chris Wallace’s questions on a litany of hot topics, from abortion to energy independence. Not only did Thompson answer Right — pro-life, for traditional marriage (would leave civil unions up to the states), happy about the lifting of the D.C. gun ban — the candidate answered, and quite efficiently at times, like someone who was grounded in a conservative philosophy (on 'gay rights,' he said 'we shouldn’t set up special categories for anybody,' and while defending himself on campaign-finance reform he cited Barry Goldwater); he does not sound like he’s just checking the right Right boxes. And even where every conservative wouldn’t agree (he supports limited guestworker-program), he sounded eminently reasonable — a great communicator."
