Fred Thompson, We Hardly Knew Ye

No, seriously, who was that guy? He came and went without leaving a print, an elusive beast that cryptozoologists will whisper about for years to come. A grumbling, phlegmatic Bigfoot.

Last summer Republicans complained that there was no true conservative in the race. Thompson came to their rescue – an arthritic old dog more inclined to lay where sunbeams once shined than move across the room. If he was the best hope for a Reagan revival, there’s not much hope at all.

In the same way Democrats held on to FDR and JFK for far too many years, Republicans keep holding up Reagan as the perfect model for America past and future. Thompson himself has huffed that there will be no more Reagans. How true that is. Reagan was of a time and a nation that are gone. There’s nothing wrong with admiring the man for what he did but resurrecting 25 year-old policies is not the way forward. New eras need new leadership.

Thompson is nothing new. I suppose he may still end up as a VP candidate but that would just be furthering the same ideological mistake that pulled him into the campaign in the first place.