Reply #4: He could win

[liberalpragmatist]

I don't think he will - (I don't think a Republican will win the presidency in '08 - the political climate is just too poisonous; a half-way decent campaign by ANY Democrat to the left of Kucinich and Gravel should win) - but he could be a good candidate for the GOP.

He's not very accomplished; a two-bit actor who was wildly popular in Tennessee but never really brought about much legislation.

Nevertheless, he has excellent PR skills, is a very good debater, is very well-spoken and is far smarter than Bush. And he's a mainstream, Southern conservative, so he's a much more logical nominee for the GOP than any of the current top 3.

He'd easily be a stronger GE candidate than McCain or Romney. I think Giuliani would be stronger, but with Giuliani the map would likely be scrambled and there would probably be a conservative 3rd party challenger taking 3-5% of the vote. Thompson would lead to a more typical red-state/blue-state breakdown.