Candidate Profile: Fred Thompson

?Occasionally, doors have opened to me,? Senator Fred Dalton Thompson told Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday in a recent interview, ?and I had sense enough to see that they were opening, and I would walk through them.? Senator Thompson?s uniquely American life has been marked not only by recognizing opportunity when it arose, but by answering the call to public service and leadership.

It started in Sheffield, Ala., where he was born to Ruth and Fletcher Thompson on August 19, 1942. Soon after his birth, the tight-knit family moved just across the state line to nearby Lawrenceburg, Tenn., which embraced Thompson as a native son. There, he learned the importance of family, hard work, faith and education. He attended school, including Lawrence County High, during the week and the First Street Church of Christ on Sundays.

It was at Memphis State and Vanderbilt, Thompson recalls, that he linked the kitchen table politics and issues he?d grown up hearing to the ?First Principles? of America?s founding embraced by the conservative movement ? freedom, free markets, and the rule of law. ?I read Sen. Barry Goldwater?s book, The Conscience of a Conservative, and the ideas were as clear as a church bell on a cold winter night,? Thompson says.

Thompson ran to fill the remaining two years of an unexpired Senate term. It was a tough race; his Democrat opponent was a 6 term Congressman. Thompson refused to play by the establishment?s political rules. Down 20 points in the polls, Thompson undertook what has become a legendary campaign. Driving a red pickup truck, he took to the highways and back roads of the Volunteer State, talking to Tennessee citizens from the back of what became the symbol of his campaign. He said it made him comfortable?taking him back to the days of his Dad?s used car lot in Lawrenceburg.

Thompson spoke about the need for a competent and ethical federal government, reminding voters of the importance of self-government and lower taxes. His effort paid off, and the message took. He moved from 20 points down to winning by 20 points. Thompson?s margin of victory and his independent approach to campaigning was not lost in a year where the GOP was swept into leadership in ?Contract with America? sweep that year.

Two years later, in 1996, the people of Tennessee returned him to office with more votes than any candidate for any office in the state?s history. Voters seemed to like the lawmaker they?d elected who had an independent streak that seemed to go with ?towering 6-foot, 5-inch frame, basso voice and commanding presence,? that the Austin American-Statesman recently described.

His overarching philosophy, was clear from the beginning. ?He believes in limiting the jurisdiction of the federal government ? and that there are adequate local laws to take care of that problem,? a former Thompson chief of staff told a reporter. Thompson recently laid his Federalism ideas out in a long post on the popular, grassroots site, RedState.

n early 2007, Thompson embarked on what he calls a ?dialogue? with the American people, through his various venues, to determine whether there was a desire among American voters for him to enter Republican Presidential race. Along the way, sites such as ?Draft Fred Thompson,? ?Fred Head? and ?Fred Facts? proliferated online. In June, Thompson filed papers that would allow him to raise funds to further explore a presidential run.

One can?t help but see that Thompson again might be hearing the call to serve. As he discussed less than six months ago, a door is opening and this time Fred Dalton Thompson may lead all of America through it.



MySpace.com - Fred Thompson - 65 - Male - Lawrenceburg, Tennessee - www.myspace.com/freddthompson08