Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

When Fred Thompson officially enters the presidential race next month, he's promising to shake up the race with tough talk about the fiscal and national security perils the nation faces. Washington Post columnist David S. Broder reports:

When Fred Thompson makes his long-delayed entrance into the Republican presidential race, he will not tiptoe quietly. Instead, he will try to shake up the establishment candidates of both parties by depicting a nation in peril from fiscal and security threats -- and prescribing tough cures that he says others shrink from offering.

In a two-hour conversation over coffee at a restaurant near his Virginia headquarters, the former senator from Tennessee said that when he joins the battle next month, he "will take some risks that others are not willing to take, in terms of forcing a dialogue on our entitlement situation, our military situation and what it's going to cost" to ensure the nation's future.

"Nobody in Congress or on either side in the presidential race wants to deal with it," Thompson said. "So we just rock along and try to maintain the status quo. Republicans say keep the tax cuts; Democrats say keep the entitlements. And we become a less unified country in the process, with a tax code that has become an unholy mess, and all we do is tinker around the edges."

Thompson readily concedes that he does not know "where all those chips are going to fall" when he starts challenging members of various interest groups to look beyond their individual agendas and weigh the sacrifices that could ensure a better future for their children.

But these issues -- national security and the fiscal crisis of an aging society with runaway heath-care costs -- "are worth a portion of a man's life. If I can't get elected talking that way, I probably don't deserve to be elected."

Thompson says he feels "free to do it" his own way, and that freedom may just be enough to shake up the presidential race.

My favorite Thompson quote of the piece: "There's no reason for me to run just to be president," he said. "I don't desire the emoluments of the office. I don't want to live a lie and clever my way to the nomination or election. But if you can put your ideas out there -- different, more far-reaching ideas -- that is worth doing."

With too many candidates, you get the feeling that they are running for president because they feel entitled to be president, or because it's the next line they want on their political resume.  Thus, they feel entitled to say and do whatever it takes to win the office.

Not so with Thompson, who does not crave the office and clearly does not intend to play word games to get elected. Thompson is going to speak his mind, and let the electoral chips fall where they may. The last Republican do that that, by the way, served eight years, left office in 1988 with sky-high approval ratings and today remains one of the most successful and beloved presidents in American history.

Thompson's quote -  "There's no reason for me to run just to be president" - reminds me of the old cliche that some men run for office to be something and others run for office to do something. Thompson is running to do something - to lead his country in a time of peril.