Fred Ain't a Half Bad Fellow

Al Barger at Blog Critics posted an article giving his analysis of Fred, particularly in light of this weekend's Fox News Sunday confrontation. His take was that it was not comparable to Bill Clinton's meltdown in the same context, but rather:

Instead, he had some specific grievances that he explained politely and personally on air. "For you to highlight nothing but the negatives in terms of the polls and then put on your own guys who have been predicting for four months, really, that I couldn't do it, kind of skew things a little bit. There's a lot of other opinion out there." That strikes me as a good, clean honest way to deal with people.

I thought that it was a heated discussion, but I didn't think it was acrimonious. Al also deals with the "fire in the belly" thought process (that I am getting sick of) and has the appropriate spin on it:

But the best personality-type reason to root for Thompson is that he's the major candidate who is distinctly the least hungry for the job. This often seems to be listed as a big argument against Thompson, for some reason. But he hasn't been itching to be the president and the big boss all his life. I find that very healthy and reassuring.
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It's not like Thompson doesn't really want the job. He's ambitious, and he thinks he could do a better job as POTUS than the others. Some folk have described him as "lazy" because of his laconic Jed Clampett style, but he's had several big careers. He's got a hell of a resume for a lazy man. It's just that his psyche won't be crushed and his soul hurt if he doesn't get the job.

Quite frankly, I understand why Fred wants to be President. I'm not too sure why the others do. Unfortunately, to quote a local politician here in Indianapolis, many want it so that they can have the "Juice".

There is one more item that Al covers that really strikes home with me and that is his principled policy approach. He quotes Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine,

"Fred Thompson's federalism is inconsistent, but at least he has principles to betray."

We might not always agree with his exact definition of federalism, though I usually do, but he does have principles. On the Republican side of things I cannot point to one (other than Ron Paul, but that is a different discussion) that is a principled leader.

H/T Blogs for Fred Thompson