Honestly, I would pick Mitt Romney over Fred Thompson.
I'm not ready to go there yet. I want to see how Thompson does when the heat turns up. No way of knowing whether there's likely to be a Macaca moment until he's dancing on the stove.
For some time, I have believed the race belonged to either Romney or Thompson. Giuliani holds the entire RINO vote and a lot of folks who liked the way he handled himself after 911. But that's it. But he can only go downhill as a lot of the later group will start to gravitate to the more apparently conservative candidates and there aren't that many RINO's amongst voters in the party. McCain has imploded. Everyone else is a minor candidate. So it's going to be Romney or Thompson. Thompson has the charisma and makes conservative hearts flutter. Romney is good-looking, has the money, has the organization, and the support of the party establishment.
I suspect that, as president, both of them will disappoint their conservative supporters. So I'm not that thrilled about the choice. But what's the alternative--and I mean the realistic alternative.