Arthur Branch For President

How fortunate would we be to have a practical, common sensical tough-on-crime District Attorney from New York as our next POTUS?

If you're wondering how to separate Law & Order's DA Arthur Branch from Fred Dalton Thompson, it's really easy. Use a little common sense, people!

But you may not have to. This smart casting move by Dick Wolf to place Thompson, former U.S. Senator (R-Tenn.), in the role of Arthur Branch was no stretch for Thompson. He was well-suited, and the writers only reinforced that by showing the character almost as if it were Thompson himself.

Thompson said this past weekend he was considering vying for the Republican nomination. While he would likely only have to beat Guiliani to get it, I believe he can. Conservative and Republican Southerners -- according to several polls -- had all but resigned themselves to the fact that Guiliani would be the lesser of the evils (Romney, McCain) and the best chance to defeat hillary (lower case h intended).

Not now. Polls are showing many Southerners are stoked and patiently awaiting his official announcement. (No, one cannot win the Presidency of the United States without the South...I guess we have risen again.)

Yet not everyone is happy about Thompson's potential run...especially the flaming one-eyed Cyclops called the media.

The Nashville Tennessean, a floodingly liberal spigot of old newspaperism, claims Thompson getting in the race just shows how Repubs can't make a decision. Blah, blah, blah. Can't the Tennessean come up with something more original -- or at least pithier -- than that?

After George W. Bush et al, it's more likely that no one but Thompson has the Ronald Reagan attitude and public appeal this country's forgotten citizens are clamoring for. And, who really could go in with fervor and clean up Bush's messes (as egregious as the ones Peanut Carter left the country in -- dazed, in a drift, factioned by race and border issues, the stubbornness of an 'I've made no mistakes' attitude, a suspect economy screaming recession ahead and a SNAFU'd/depleted military)?

Not Mitt. He won't even defend his own religion ("I'm not running as a Mormon").
Not McCain. He can't decide pro or against abo. (1999 - "...I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade."; 2007 - He said in a recent interview with Stephanopoulos he is for a constitutional amendment banning abo except certain cases [rape, incest, life of the mother]).

And so what if Thompson has a younger wife?

I don't see critical stories on Hugh Hefner (80-something) and his three twenty-something gal pals or Demi Moore and her much younger hubby, Ashton Kutcher from these people who claim to be journalists.

Let Thompson have his arm candy. Then we'll have a glamorous First Lady a la Jackie O in the White House again.

As for the twice-married thing reporters are in his grill over ... if you are not willing to write about and demand absolute morality from every elected official on every issue, then get off that dead horse, you intellectually infantile fault-finders.

Look at some of Thompson's career highlights:

He led the investigation of the Parole Board in 1977 that felled Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton.

As a Howard Baker legal counsel during the Watergate hearings that toppled President Richard Nixon, Thompson was the one that asked the pivotal question of Butterfield, "Were you aware of the existence of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the President?"

This publicly exposed Nixon's taping system, as well as Baker's question, "What did the President know and when did he know it?"

Similarities to President Ronald Reagan?

Movies, of course. Politics of course (Reagan - 2 terms as Cali Gov; Thompson - 2 terms as U.S Senator). I think his time in Washington will serve Thompson better than had he say, been a 2-term Gov of Tennessee (Cali is like running a country; Tennessee is like running a huge -- really huge -- amusement park).

Here's the bombshell. I think Thompson is more like FDR than the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Why? He's got that 'I'm gonna make things better regardless of the naysayers' attitudes. I don't see Thompson paralyzed by popularity polls.

I expect he would provide decisive leadership on Iraq and be as aggressive on terrorism as FDR was on the Nazi movement. I think he would play a critical role, again a decisive one, on reunifying the world with us. I think he'd come up with a New Deal for America, one that really shakes up this country, and one that returns America to the will of the masses, those ignored people that financially support this country -- the middle class.

So, I'm having bumper stickers made. Stay tuned. I'll post the design and give you a chance to order your own.

For now, in the immortal words of Jenny (paraphrased, of course)...

Run, Fred, run.