No Ron Paul? How dare they! I had to click ‘unacceptable’ for all the candidates, though in truth I don’t know enough about Gilmore to reject him.

I didn’t notice Ron Paul not being available. He ought to be included. I ranked Gilmore as “acceptable.” My own opinion of Gilmore has not aged well. I think he was an effective governor of my state, but he doesn’t strike me as the type who would be able to move up effectively. He really was a one trick pony. He wanted to lower (eliminate) our personal property tax on automobiles. In this he mostly accomplished his goal.

Not too many realistic GOPers, if those poll results are any indication. The guys with the widest appeal are going to be Giuliani and McCain. I suspect that McCain is no one’s favorite on this blog (and there are, I agree, good reasons why), but Rudy still looks like a winner to me. I’d vote for him.

Someday, someone will have to explain to me the bizarre appeal of Newt Gingrich to some diehard Republicans. I don’t get it. It’s as though people were looking only at his policy ideas without considering the concrete reality of Gingrich the man. Gingrich isn’t merely the sum of his ideas; he’s also got a reputation as an obstructionist petty tyrant who shut down the government, divorced one wife when she was sick, and wrote some bad fiction. If nothing else, he’s a polarizing figure who will cause Dems with long memories to close ranks against him.

And this Fred Thompson thing looks more like a Drudge-inspired surge of feeling than a substantive shift in GOP voter outlook. Unless Thompson can really sell himself as the white knight, I doubt anything will come of him. Romney, too. Want to line the liberals up against you? Ask them to roll over and allow a pious Mormon into the White House. Justified or not, you’ll hear cries of “creeping theocracy!” (Never mind that most mainstream Christians are themselves leery of Mormons.)

Come on, guys: vote Giuliani. With conviction.

Kevin

I fell in love with Fred Thompson when he played Adm. Josh Painter in the Hunt for Red October.

“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”

That sums up my feelings about most things, it has become a touchstone for my life, and whenever things start going pear shaped, I see Fred and that F14 crashing in the background.

So, I want him to be president.

Most of the people on that list are non-entities, people who don’t have enough personality among them to half-fill a teaspoon. I could barely remember that Gilmore was once governor of the state I live in. I think Kevin is absolutely right about Gingrich - I kinda like the guy, but he’s sort of like Ross Perot without the charm. Though his civil war books weren’t bad. Though I’ve heard good things about Hunter, I know nothing of the man. The only ones with anything resembling gravitas are McCain, cause he did before, Guliani, cause he’s been mayor of NY, and Fred Thompson.

Fred, the next Reagan.