Fred Thompson is considering a run for the Republican nomination for President. He has not, of course, announced this. He is not to be confused with former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who has announced his plans to run this past weekend, claims he is the “reliable conservative”. As the field grows larger and larger the front runners are starting to lose support. Candidates are starting to call themselves ‘conservative’. But which one is more conservative? That is for Republicans to decide in the primaries. The funny thing is, if they are all going to argue as to who is more conservative they will be missing out on many important issues that bother the middle of the road Republican, who is considering a vote for a Democrat. Take what happened last November as an example. Conservatism is important, but it’s not the most important quality in a candidate. As we see in recent polls, they show Giuliani still ahead, but this may only be his popularity. Giuliani is not very conservative and middle of the road voters like him. But, a great mayor doesn’t always make a great president. He should not count on a big social conservative vote because he is lacking certain moral values that many social conservatives hold dear. John McCain is holding steady in these polls. He is the one who may actually still grab the nomination, believe it or not. He has a lot of work to do, however, in convincing fellow Republicans that he is not too left wing on many issues, including illegal immigration. The main question surrounding Mitt Romney is obvious, Can a Mormon become President? Good question isn’t it? I remember when they said no Catholic could be elected. How wrong ‘they’ were.

Some of the other, lesser known candidates such as Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo offer a hard line stance on illegal immigration and support many social conservative issues. The problem here is that they probably will not gather enough support, money or fame to win the nomination let alone defeat Queen Hillary. This does not mean that these men should not be listened to. If the current top 3 really want to succeed and remain in the top 3, it would do them some good to come out with a stance on illegal immigration and stick with it. Abortion, gay marriage and the war in Iraq are all good issues to discuss, but illegal immigration is definitely a higher priority for many Americans.

Fred Thompson for President? He is conservative. He was a senator. He is an actor. His voting record is very good. He is certainly a tough guy. If he does run, he will definitely be one to consider, listen to and possibly support come primary season.