As the Republican Party struggles to find a Presidential Candidate for 2008 that will wear the Conservative mantle that Ronald Wilson Reagan created, each candidate, when judged, is found to be lacking. Each of the top tier hopefuls has tried on that mantle. None have, as yet, convinced the faithful, that they can wear it convincingly.

Yet, such a candidate is available, and waiting in the wings. The conservative movement has a man who has, throughout his career, championed smaller government, lower taxes, and less Government interference in our daily lives. This man, like President Reagan, is known for his oratory, beloved by the country, and recognized almost universally by the electorate.

He has, as a member of Congress voted to restrict campaign contributions by both unions and corporations. He voted against the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and voted to limit welfare payments to immigrants.

He is against increasing the minimum wage, and for Social Security personal retirement accounts. He voted to eliminate the ‘marriage penalty’ and for across-the-board spending cuts. He voted to extend the Internet Sales Tax moratorium, and to authorize the use of force in Iraq.

He voted for welfare reform, but against the elimination of block grants for food stamps. He voted for a ban on partial birth abortion, and against same sex marriage. He voted for abstinence education, but against the inclusion of prescription drugs under Medicare. He voted in favor of the limiting of endless death penalty appeals, but against stricter national penalties for gun and drug violations.

The man, of whom I write, after spending eight years in Washington, said he longed to return to the honesty and reality of Hollywood. A union member, this man has been a truck driver, a prosecuting attorney, a US Senator, and one of America’s most easily recognized faces on network television today.

The man, of course, is Fred Dalton Thompson.

Thompson’s conservative credentials, in and out of government, make him a natural fit for the conservative movement within the Republican Party. His association with the defining moment of the left in the modern age; he was the co-chief council to the Senate Watergate Committee in its investigation of the Watergate Scandal that eventually brought down President Nixon; and his work for so many years in Hollywood with both television and movies; makes him a man embraced by persons across all spectrums of the body politic.

Like Sir Thomas More in the play, A Man For All Seasons, Thompson is seen as a man of principle, admired by his fans, envied by his enemies, and beloved by the common people. As a ‘non-politician’ politician, he is seen by most Americans as a down-to-earth common man; a fatherly figure, wise in the ways of the world.

Thompson brings a down-home earthiness to his manner, the heritage of his Alabama birth, and Tennessee upbringing. A man not born to wealth, but who has made of himself a wealthy man, through his own talent and enterprise, the American people will turn to him for his homespun wisdom and charm.

From time to time, his name is floated as a Presidential candidate, with a Draft Fred Thompson website touting his appeal.

Fred Thompson is the very candidate for whom the Conservative Movement has been searching. No other candidate projects the charisma and charm, as well as the name recognition and conservative credentials to which Fred Thompson can lay claim. Like President Reagan in 1980, Fred Thompson is the true conservative leader that can take the Party forward in the 21^st Century.

David Hinz is the Publisher of The HinzSight Report