It’s just time. RWB is endorsing Fred Dalton Thompson for the Republican nomination.

As mentioned when I meditated on the horse race nine days ago, Fred Thompson is the candidate whose views, as articulated by him, are closest to my own. I like that about him. Despite that, he is human, and there are reservations I’ve had about him, and about every candidate, that have kept me comfortably on the fence until now. But time’s a wastin’, and there comes a point you either make your choice or have it made for you. So I’m making mine now. I could have waited till after Christmas, but I figure there’s a lot of work to be done by Fred’s campaign in making up all those banners and stickers (Endorsed by RWB!) to plaster on his bus and to festoon each public event from here on out. Get busy, you guys.

Those hesitating to support Thompson may be doing so for a few reasons. What’s his executive experience? It is not extensive, to be sure, but the fact that he hasn’t presided over a huge bureaucracy in the past does not by definition mean that he won’t be effective at it — merely that we don’t know for sure what his talents in that area will prove to be. And the Democrat he would face in the general election will not have any more executive experience than him (unless Governor Bill Richardson stages an unlikely rally). In the end, for me, it comes back to what the candidate’s beliefs are, and what that candidate would actually be likely to do with the executive power.

Another reservation some conservatives may have is that he’s not pro-life enough, because he doesn’t back the idea of a constitutional amendment protecting life in the womb, and because he’s indicated that he would leave the abortion issue to the states, were Roe v. Wade to be overturned. I’m not sure how many real people have this reservation, since Thompson has picked up so many endorsements from pro-life groups, but it may well be out there. All I would say to this is: nuts. Pro-life people who are thinking two or three steps ahead of the overturning of Roe v. Wade should beware the possibility that twenty years from now it still won’t be overturned. Its overturning is the crucial thing for people who want to be able to see just the beginning of a reversal of the tide of abortion. On this issue of issues, Thompson is solid and has long been solid, and there is every reason to have confidence that it would figure prominently in his thinking in appointing judges to the federal bench. He is also a Second Amendment absolutist, and, bluntly, the same judges who are likely to find an explicit individual right to bear firearms in the U.S. Constitution (because it’s there in the text) are also likely not to find an explicit right to have an abortion (because it’s not there in the text).

I could go on (I could mention his unique willingness among the leading candidates to be seen as a skeptic of man-made global warming) but, after all, I’m not being paid to do this. It’s still his campaign to run and to win. There are signs that his timing may be well-judged and that he may be able to pull off some surprises in the next month or so, and so I hereby give him this invaluable endorsement as an early Christmas present, and I’ve also sent him a few bucks via the internets to pay for hamburgers on the road.

There are certainly other very good candidates on the Republican side, and today’s not the day for me to knock any of them. But the lay of the land is clear enough now that I think I know which way I’d prefer to see the Republican party, and ultimately the country, go.

I’ve said until now, “may the best man win,” but today it is my candid opinion that Fred D. Thompson is the best man.

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