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From Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder:

For President of the United States, I will be backing former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson and urging support for him among friends and colleagues.

Thompson is clearly the choice for the Republican nomination for a host of reasons. First, a little history.

Thirty-nine years ago this spring found this 8th grader actively backing the nascent presidential bid of a first-term California governor named Ronald Reagan against the favorite (and eventual nominee), former Vice President Richard Nixon. History has recorded how that one turned out. Listening to and reading elders whom I found persuasive, I believed in: a) the unbounded leadership capacity and historic mission of Gov. Reagan; and b) the un-wisdom of turning the Republican Party over to Mr. Nixon.

Fast forward eight years to my college days. The spring of ‘76 found a gallant former Gov. Reagan, the beau ideal of our doughty band of conservatives, mounting an historic, unforgettable, magnificently inspiring insurgency for the GOP nomination against an unelected President Gerald Ford. Establishment Republicans recoiled against Reagan, telling us Ford was the safe choice, the electable one. (He wasn’t.)

Missouri Attorney General Jack Danforth asked me to abandon my Reagan commitment as a delegate to the convention and switch to Ford. I respectfully declined, standing by the Californian. As Reagan vaulted easily over leadership hurdles where so many others have faltered, a new term — Reagan Democrats — entered American political discourse, to describe the converts by the millions he added to our ranks.

Trust me, fellow Republicans, when I say this: Fred Thompson is the real deal, the closest thing to a natural we’ve had (or are likely to see) since Reagan.

Begin with this: Sen. Thompson is a conservative solidly within the mainstream of his party in a country that still wants to be governed by a center-right coalition. That is, if we Republicans can prove ourselves once again worthy of the trust of Americans who became progressively more disgusted with congressional Republicans through 2006. Thompson, who left Washington four years ago, is untainted by the debacles of 2005-’06.

Proceed to this: Thompson won his two Senate races by the amazing margins of more than 20 points, as he noted recently, “in a state Clinton carried twice.” The meaning of these victories is that Thompson has demonstrated crossover appeal, as Democrats in that great state voted for him both times, by the tens if not hundreds of thousands.

Thompson, of big screen and TV, has a star power, unmatched by any other candidate — an appeal rightly feared by our Democratic friends.

Listen carefully to Thompson as he fills-in these days for radio master Paul Harvey, and you’ll hear echoes of the great Reagan magic. (Reagan also turned to enormously effective radio commentary during his out-years ‘76-’80.) I smiled the other day as I heard Thompson conclude the Harvey show he’s been doing lately. Just a simple, “Let’s get together again tomorrow,” he gently urges his listeners, and the program is over.

What comes through is a genuine, Tennessee neighborliness you can’t fake. It’s also the kind of friendly discourse we speak in the border-state and Midwestern precincts I call home, where any candidate will need to prevail next year.

Fred Thompson is the man.

Submitted by Peter D. Kinder
Lt. Governor of Missouri

For more on Kinder’s endorsement, see http://www.johncombest.com. Comments to john {at} johncombestblog {dot} com. E-mail rules here.

For Missouri conservatives, the Peter Kinder and Carl Bearden letters supporting Fred Thompson display three promising traits:

1.) They are honest. By supporting a candidate who is not even a candidate, Kinder and Bearden are making a statement congruent with what we already know: Our current field of front-runners leaves much to be desired.

2.) They give us cover. Until now, conservatives have been forced to smile and nod politely when those on the Mitt Romney payroll try to convince us that the former Massachusetts governor is our party’s best bet in 2008. But if two of our state’s most conservative — and loyal — Republicans don’t buy it, how can the Romney camp get mad at the rest of us for not buying it either?

3.) They promise a genuine grassroots campaign. What’s more grassroots than asking people to sign a petition to recruit a candidate into the race? Both Peter and Carl have invested a great deal of time working with grassroots groups all over the state — from Young Republicans to Pachyderms to local Missouri Federation of Republican Women chapters — and have built relationships with the activists most likely to recruit their friends into campaigns.

I have dear friends who are supporting second-tier candidates just to make a statement about Romney and Co. I tend to agree with those friends ideologically, and love their eff-the-party-establishment attitude. But realistically, is there a better candidate for mainstream conservatives than Fred Thompson?

For more on the D and R presidential campaigns in Missouri, visit http://www.johncombest.com. Comments to john {at} johncombestblog {dot} com. E-mail rules here.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) scored a decisive victory in a straw poll of Republicans attending the St. Louis County Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday, March 10. Brownback received 46 of the 131 ballots cast, for 35.1 percent of the vote. Rudy Giuliani came in second with 23 votes (17.5%), while Mitt Romney finished third with 18 votes, or 13.7%.

Brownback’s performance in the poll was undoubtedly bolstered by the fact that he was the dinner’s keynote speaker. Still, the results — particularly Giuliani’s strong showing — may come as a surprise to the state’s party leaders. Gov. Matt Blunt has been an early, and vocal, supporter of Romney, and the former Massachusetts governor was invited to deliver the keynote address at the statewide Lincoln Days celebration held in February. Earlier this month, a longtime Blunt consultant told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Romney “appears to have Missouri locked down, as far as I can tell.”

The complete results follow:

Rudy Giuliani: 23 votes (17.6%)

John McCain: 5 votes (3.8%)

Mitt Romney: 18 votes (13.7%)

Sam Brownback: 46 votes (35.1%)

Mike Huckabee: 9 votes (6.9%)

Tom Tancredo: 3 votes (2.3%)

Duncan Hunter: 7 votes (5.3%)

Undecided: 14 votes (10.7%)

Other: 6 votes (4.6%)

Like all straw polls, this one was unscientific. It was sponsored by Survey Saint Louis, LLC, a local polling and voter contact firm. The results were provided exclusively to this site.

Note to non-Missourians: To keep up with Republican and Democratic presidential candidates’ visits to Missouri, visit johncombest.com.

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– I hereby go on the record as supporting human cloning if we can start with Barbara Cooper. Under Barb’s direction, the Missouri Association of Republicans set a modern-day record for attendance at Lincoln Days. A beautiful venue, ample volunteers, and a Saturday night dinner program that honored not one man or one group, but rather dozens of the state’s grassroots leaders. Just what you’d expect from a weekend organized by Barbara.

– This speech was really funny.

– I had the honor of moderating Saturday morning’s Town Hall Forum, which drew every state-level Republican leader except Gov. Matt Blunt. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, Treasurer Sarah Steelman, Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, and Speaker Rod Jetton spoke and took questions from the crowd. They were preceded on the program by Sen. Kit Bond, who along with Congressmen Todd Akin and Kenny Hulshof gave us an update on D.C. goings-on and fielded questions as well.

– The heartiest helping of Republican red meat was served at the Missouri Young Republicans’ state meeting on Saturday. State Chair Monica Durrwachter’s meeting attracted Sen. Bond, Gov. Blunt, Lt. Gov. Kinder, Treasurer Steelman, President Pro Tem Gibbons and Speaker Jetton. State Reps. Nathan Cooper, Jason Smith, and Kevin Threlkeld were also in attendance. At the close of the meeting, Durrwachter presented the inimitable Gus Wagner with a plaque commemorating his six years of service as Missouri YR Chair.

– The MAR Gold Ticket Reception with Mitt Romney featured a sizable crowd, many of whom may support Romney in the primary — if the race isn’t already decided by the time Missouri votes.

– Coverage of Romney’s keynote speech is here. I thought it was a classy move on the part of the Blunt team to have the governor provide Barbara Cooper with a proclamation honoring her decades of community service. Equally impressive was the fact that Romney took time out from his speech to recognize Barbara and her work.

– The hospitality suites seemed less raucous than in years past, a perception which I concede could very well be attributable to my advancing age and ever-earlier bedtime.

– Looking for information on your county’s Lincoln Days? Click here.

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