14:12 video

Much too much head-bobbing, but otherwise a pretty decent performance. I have never had the slightest temptation to support Rudolph Giuliani, a liberal Republican whose political career was founded on the abuse of prosecutorial power. Mitt Romney’s business career compels respect, and I have not been living in Massachusetts, so I was not terribly familiar with the detail of his liberal actions and policies as governor. I thought Romney was worth considering, until I observed his indecent haste in jettisoning ties to Larry Craig. That was a little too political for my taste. McCain is, of course, not only way too liberal, he’s also way too old. So, on the whole, I am leaning toward Thompson.

I suspect that Fred Thompson is the only GOP contender with a serious chance of defeating Lady Macbeth. Giuliani was afraid to run against her for the Senate from New York. Why would anyone think he can beat her nationally?

Fred08.Com

Dick Morris claims that Fred Thompson’s candidacy is in eclipse, and is bragging that nativists like himself got Thompson to fire Spencer Abraham because he was too pro-immigration.

Gosh, maybe there’s a moral here, could circumstance A possibly be related to circumstance B?

But Thompson’s problems go beyond fund raising. Yet to announce his candidacy, he has already fired two campaign managers. His first choice, Tom Collamore, former vice president of Altria, the new name for Phillip Morris, fell to pressure from Fred’s wife Jeri, a self-styled political consultant. Then, the luckless candidate turned to former Michigan Senator and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. But just as bloggers — including us — began to unload on Abraham for his exceedingly pro-immigration record and to cast doubts on his firmness as a backer of Israel, Fred got rid of him, too.

More than anything else, however, it is Fred’s indecision about running that, combined with speculation that he may not want it badly enough, is cooling GOP ardor. After tying with Rudy Giuliani in Scott Rasmussen’s daily tracking polls, he has now fallen seven points back.

Dick Morris thinks we should all support Newt Gingrich instead.

Lots of luck. Newt came out in support of Global Warming back in April. I doubt he is really stupid enough to believe in that kind of nonsense, so I expect it was just a cynical ploy to appeal to wider constituencies of the Great Unwashed. Politicians have to win elections, I know, but there are limits. Global Warming is an especially objectionable sort of popular delusion which intelligent people have a universal duty to oppose. Real conservatives (of which I am one) do not support candidates who truckle to stupidity and pander on such a scale in order to get votes. Newt can go jump in the lake.

George W. Bush, who is not running for anything, neither blocked the Plamegame witch hunt nor pardoned its only victim, Lewis Libby. But Fred Thompson, who is considering running for the presidency in 2008, will be hosting fundraisers to help pay for Libby’s defense.

He’s definitely winning points in my book.