Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Fred Dalton Thompson announced last night on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that he is seeking the Presidency in next year’s General Election. The first pot-shots were fired at Thompson from, where else, the friendly confines of CNN by none other than the former Horn-Dog-In-Chief Bill Clinton. This man has absolutely no business criticizing anyone, but being the arrogant, finger wagging liberal that he is, such criticism is his entitlement.

This bunch is scared to death of Fred Thompson and for good reason. They don’t have a candidate that can beat him and they know it. Think about this for a minute. The last thing that bunch of Democrat phonies wants to face in this election is someone who says what he means and means what he genuinely believes – especially when it resonates with America. As Ronald Reagan proved in 1980 and especially in 1984, common sense beats rhetoric every time. Put another way, people aren’t as stupid as the Democrats think they are.

Thus this comment on Larry King Live from former President Clinton:

“Because of his movie roles and his television roles, he has got a certain swagger," Clinton said. "He is smart. And he knows what to say, and how to say it, to appeal to a certain big swath of the American electorate”

There are two key things to focus on in this statement, which was the official opening salvo from the Democrats. “He has got a certain swagger”. They’re already trying to paint him as a cowboy and then subconsciously connect him to the man they’re running against, George W. Bush. This is a stupid, flawed strategy and it’s going to backfire.

The second thing is where Clinton says: “He is smart. And he knows what to say, and how to say it, to appeal to a certain big swath of the American electorate”.  What Clinton was trying to do here was paint Thompson as being some kind of grand manipulator, sort of like himself. What he really said though was the core of the Democrat’s Fear Factor when it comes to Thompson.

They fear the fact that he’s one who can think on his feet, and who not only can, but does speak plainly to the people using common sense. The appeal that President Clinton speaks of is exactly what the Democrats lack in 2008. Make no mistake about it, the comment about being smart and knowing what to say and how to say it to appeal to the electorate can’t be said about any one candidate that the Democrats have running.

So the Democrats rolled the dice and decided to run against the War in Iraq and against President Bush. Their candidates continue a litany of stupid from Obama proving daily as to why he’s got less business being the President than anyone running to Hillary looking more and more like the phony she is to John Edwards shoving is foot farther into his mouth each time he opens it. I have said it before and will say it again, this race is the Republicans’ to lose. Think about it – When Dennis Kucinich is the common sense voice of reason on the Democratic Stage, there is something severely wrong.

When it comes to the rest of the Republican field, they’re jockeying and vying for who gets to be the Veep and who goes to the Senate among them. My prediction is Giuliani is the odds on favorite for Vice President. Strategically, a Thompson-Giuliani ticket is the perfect storm for the Democrats. Thompson will run strong in the Midwest, the plains and the South. Giuliani will take New York, much of the northern tier states and will run well in Florida. That means the Democrats are going to have to run at 100 percent of capacity elsewhere to avoid a slaughter reminiscent of Reagan v. Mondale 1984.

Philosophically this pair is the best balanced also. Fred Thompson is going to appeal to the conservative base of the party and Giuliani is going to not only take the moderates, he’s going to siphon off moderate and conservative Democratic votes as well, forcing the Democrats to bend hard to the left to try to galvanize the liberal kook base, a move that Hillary is desperately wanting to make and a move that will assure a defeat for the Democrats.

Where Thompson and Giuliani meet on common ground is the War on Terror. They both intimately understand that we need to kill terrorists in order to secure the country and they can articulate that same message in their own way – something the Democrats cannot do, especially Hillary, given the dismal record her husband chalked up in the ‘90’s.

Mitt Romney is setting himself up to take a Senate Seat in the near future and so is Huckabee. With those two in the Senate, you will see a return of true conservatism which is yet another nightmare that the Democrats don’t even want to consider.

Fred Thompson making his official debut is the worst thing that could happen to the Democrats. A well-run campaign by him will legitimize the fear factor they have and leave them with two choices as to strategy: Run against Bush/Cheney/Iraq or go to the extreme left. Either one almost certainly assures a defeat in 08, how big the defeat is really depends on what the Democrats do.