If you're looking for a conservative candidate in 2008 and my former employer and first choice for GOP nominee, Duncan Hunter, isn't your cup of tea, then Fred Dalton Thompson may be your best bet. Here's a primer that will explain why that's the case.

Fred's a Tennessee native who "speaks Southern," has a very minimal amount of baggage, and he'd be almost guaranteed to carry every Southern state. Although most Republicans take those states for granted since Bush carried all of them in 2000 and 2004, it's entirely possible that some of the other top tier candidates, like New Yorker Rudy Giuliani and Massachusetts native Mitt Romney, could lose multiple Southern states to a Democratic nominee.

Additionally, in head-to-head polls against the Democratic contenders, Fred Thompson is defying conventional wisdom and putting up numbers that are roughly comparable to Rudy Guiliani's and far superior to Mitt Romney's in most states. Considering that Rudy has far higher name recognition than Fred Thompson, it seems likely that Thompson has the long-term potential to be a stronger candidate than Giuliani and Romney everywhere except the states that are probably too blue for the GOP to win any way, like New York and Vermont.

At a time when the approval rating of Congress is at 11% and trending downward, simply not being a part of that failing Congress is a huge asset.

Fred Thompson has been out of Congress since January of 2003, which means that he didn't vote on Iraq, he wasn't involved on either side of the immigration battles, he wasn't around for Katrina, and he hasn't been involved in the scandals, mudslinging, and craven pandering of the last few years. If, as expected, Hillary Clinton turns out to be the nominee, Thompson can effectively portray himself as an agent of change, who wants to run against the business-as-usual campaign of Hillary Clinton and her pals in Congress.

In the movie Roadhouse, another Dalton, played by Patrick Swayze said, "I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice."

Fred has this down to an art form.

Typically, he's a pleasant, sharp witted man who comes across like a more politically astute version of most people's grandfathers. But, when he feels a need to punch back, he has shown that unlike the GOP's current standard-bearer, he's up to the task.

For example, when Michael Moore went after Thompson, Fred splattered the Left's propagandist and chief with a lighthearted yet potent video response.

James Dobson, who has sadly been veering off the rails at a rapidly increasing pace during this primary season, said "I don’t think (Thompson's) a Christian. At least that’s my impression.” Dobson claimed that those comments were taken out of context, but he followed them up with some other rather nasty shots at Fred.

When asked about meeting with Dobson by Sean Hannity, instead of pandering to Dobson, who has been behaving like the head of "pro-lifers for Hillary" of late, Thompson responded, "I don't particularly care to have a conversation with him. If he wants to call up and apologize again, that's ok with me. But I'm not going to dance to anybody's tune."

Then there was this exchange, which turned out to be one of the better moments of this week's debate,

"...MSNBC's Chris Matthews shockingly gave an opinion about one of Thompson's answers to a question about a looming strike at Chrysler and whether the government should intervene.

Thompson said "No" and paused which prompted a follow up question from CNBC's Maria Bartiromo in which he expanded his answer.

Matthews then snidely remarked, "You should have stopped at ‘no.’" Thompson shot back, "That's your opinion, Christopher."

If conservatives are looking for a candidate who isn't pugnacious to the point of being obnoxious, but is capable of fighting back against the Clinton campaign's sleazy politics of personal destruction, Fred Thompson has shown that he has what it takes.

Although Fred is not the most conservative candidate in the race, he is certainly the most conservative candidate in the top tier. He is pro-life, he's anti-gun control, he has a good record on small government and fiscal issues, and he can be trusted to appoint originalist judges to the Supreme Court.

That doesn't mean you can't pick Thompson apart on a few issues, but you can do that to any of the candidates running if you take a hard enough look at their records. That being said, Thompson is definitely much more representative of the vision of the Republican Party that people had in 1980-1994 -- than he is of the "Big Government Republicanism" vision of the GOP that George Bush has come to represent. That means that Fred Thompson could be someone conservatives really want to have in the White House, as opposed to a candidate who could only be said to be the "lesser of two evils" when compared to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.