Ave, Annika!

And all praise to Annika's commenters in this post for bringing up a combination I never thought about: Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. Both are articulate; both are media-savvy. They complement each other, too: the genteel, deliberate Thompson can counteract Giuliani's occasional(?) pugnacity.

But I'm saying this without knowing the first thing about Thompson's voting record. I'd better check on that before I say anything more. I'm looking for centrists, after all; if Thompson turns out to be a right-wing looney (I doubt it; he's had a long career in both politics and Hollywood, and doesn't seem to have a looney's reputation), I won't support him. Commenters in Annika's thread also note that it's unclear how serious Thompson is about running, and whether he'd accept the second-fiddle position on the ticket. That latter issue is bothersome because of what it may imply about his ego and ambitiousness. Again, I need to check into this myself. Perhaps this suspicion about Thompson is more rumor than substance.

But Annika's commenters also seem to think that Barack Obama has already had his day. I seriously doubt that. Obama has proved to be a moving orator and despite some inevitable mistakes (what politician can claim to have run a mistake-free campaign?), he appears to be a very quick study in how to play the game.

Politicians are often grilled by their enemies for perceived inconsistencies. We are all prone to them, but because politicians have chosen to live such public lives, their inconsistencies seem somehow worse. As I get older, I find my cynicism weakening on occasion, because I realize these folks, dirty bastards though they be, are only human. Obama will likely weather the coming storm, unless he's been hiding something truly dark, such as a predilection for the blood of newborns.


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