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"All I remember of Fred, unfortunately, is seeing him get rolled by John Glenn on the Senate Committee investigating illegal campaign contributions during the 1996 election season. Tough?"

In an odd way that is Thompson's claim to fame while serving in elective office. Other that, it was a nondescript Senate career. The line on Senator Thompson has always been that that he lacked that "fire in the belly" to really be an effective leader. To illustrate, there's the often mentioned Ronald Reagan comparison. Reagan's career went from LaLa Land to Sacramento to Washington. Thompson career went from Washington to LaLa Land. Opposite paths. He's a good man actor though.

To illustrate, there's the often mentioned Ronald Reagan comparison. Reagan's career went from LaLa Land to Sacramento to Washington.

There is a great book out called "The Education of Ronald Reagan" that focuses on the very important transition period in Reagan's life: when he signed on to be GE's spokesman (GE Theater and later Death Valley Days on Sunday evenings) and ambassador of good will with the GE factories. His Hollywood career was cooling down so he really went to work on this GE assignment. As he would travel all over the country visiting GE plants and the regions surrounding those plants, he was starting to see the real America and to learn the attributes and strengths of capitalism. It was in this time period that he started to reject FDR's New Dealism and to adopt the Hayak, Henry Hazlitt concepts of the economy. He also could see the destructive nature of American unions during this period (he had been the President of Screen Actor's Guild and he had negotiated with the communist leaders who were trying to take over that industry).

These VERY important years evolved into Reagan taking up an active role in the Goldwater campaign and then giving "The Speech" on October 27, 1964. This was the same speech (modified, updated, edited, etc. over the years) that he had been giving on the "mashed potato" circuit for years but it took the country by storm. Two years later: he wins the governors race in California.

THEN, in the interim from his Governor's days to his second run for the presidency in 1980, he was giving his 3 minute radio essays -- that he wrote "in his own hand". He was a one-man think-tank doing this work and all those important conservative principles became emblazoned into his brain. When he stood up to talk about his principles -- he didn't have to search.

So that's the rest of the story... Unfortunately, there is no comparable out there. I just know that Fred isn't the real deal and he hasn't labored at this to have the deeply set principles that a Reagan had. And he's never been an administrator (Governor, President of the Screen Actor's Guild, Mayor, CEO). Yes, I've heard him do some Paul Harvey spots but I wonder who writes those.

BTW, my tag line refers to a speech by GE Executive Lem Boulware who was Reagan's mentor at GE. The speech ("Salvation is not Free") was made before the Harvard Business School graduating class of 1947, I believe, and it is recognized as the seedlings for Reagan's "Time For Choosing Speech" in 1964.