Fred's Good Day

Fred Thompson had a pretty good day yesterday. Pundits pretty much agree that he was the dominant factor in the South Carolina debate last night and pretty much mopped the floor with everybody else. The Fred that many of us were hoping for finally showed up, but probably too late. John McCain is enjoying a post-New Hampshire bounce, and Mike Huckabee (who was Fred's punching bag in the debate) is still showing some strength following Iowa. Fred needs to win South Carolina, but given that most voters don't watch these debates, it's doubtful he'll be able to stop McCain.

Today the magazine Human Events endorsed Fred for president and here is some of their reasoning:

The 2008 presidential election is the most unusual and most important in many years. It’s been more than five decades since such a race didn’t feature an incumbent President or Vice President. Since World War II, America has not had a presidential election at a time when the stakes were higher. Conservatives have to win this election, and to do so, we have to identify a candidate around whom we all can rally.

Fundamental Beliefs

We begin by recalling the profound words of Ronald Reagan at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 15, 1975: “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.” We believed that then, and we believe it now. The issue for us -- and for the conservative community -- boils down to which of the candidates is most representative of the fundamental conservative principles we believe in. The answer is Fred Thompson.

Read the rest of it here. Fred does appear to me to be the only true...and consistent...conservative in the lineup. I think Romney is a conservative when it works to his electoral advantage, Huckabee is conservative on a few social issues but pretty liberal otherwise, McCain is scary in how much he wants to be liked by the press and the Dems, and Rudy, while strong on military and defense, has a lot of liberal tendencies on social issues. Without question, Fred Thompson is the guy whose views on issues and policies most match my own.

Maybe we could still see a surprise in South Carolina.