"There’s an old saying in Washington, that in dealing with any tough issue, half the politicians hope that citizens don’t understand it while the other half fear that people actually do.” Former Senator Fred Thompson spoke bluntly on May 18th, urging Congress and the White House to scrap the hastily cobbled immigration bill, the contents of which may not be made public until after passage, and secure the borders first.

As early as his real-life role of special counsel at the 1973 Watergate hearings, I was aware of Fred Thompson’s appeal, that rough-chiseled countenance and cut-to-the-chase demeanor. Then as now, there is no spin.

On March 11, I experienced a twinge of excitement when he appeared on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace” and keeping it pithy, simply said he was “giving some thought” to a presidential run. I was amazed at my own adrenaline pumping reaction to that prospect. I haven’t been able to completely analyze why this is so. Is it his reasoned deliberations delivered in that unaffected baritone southern drawl? Is it that he’s never drifted from his core principles?

Some who oppose Thompson have accused us Fred fans of confusing entertainers and leaders. But my TV is locked on cable news channels and I don’t watch “Law and Order.” I think he’s somebody I could vote for without that next day feeling of having been snookered. He’s the authority figure I would want to manage the coming crisis, whether it’s terror related or environmental.

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Apparently my reaction was typical because in the first Gallup poll after he spoke those three words, (March 23-25), he scored 12 percent. To be whipped by someone who’s an undeclared, unofficial candidate must be frustrating for those declared hopefuls in single digits already frantically campaigning.

Fox News’ Neil Cavuto asked Thompson if he worried about not being part of that frenetic phalanx of candidates who began crisscrossing the country in late 2006. He smiled and said, “I don’t do frenetic very well.”

It’s a delight to observe this resolute man who’s steadfast and can’t be rushed or panicked into a decision. He added that the times will call for the right person and he has to weigh whether he believes he’s the man for this most dangerous time in our history. My hoped-for announcement that Fred Thompson is an official candidate will summon a viscerally positive reaction in me. He has charisma, that important big “C” quality which is hard to explain. We know it when we see it and without it, you’re finished before you start. His record is consistent, another c-word that’s reassuring. A social and fiscal conservative to be sure but perhaps he brings a common sense approach that will be acceptable to both the Republican base and liberal Democrats.

The c-word most affecting a possible run is cancer. He was wise to disclose it before rumors started. With complete candor, he told Cavuto that if Americans were going to hesitate about his health, he would like to know it now. Their unanswered concern would be like trying to campaign with “a piano on my back.” I believe his assurances that of over 30 types of lymphoma one can have, this one is the “best” in that it’s controlled easily with medication.

Grassroots Voter.com reports that the weekend of May 20 w, he won another statewide straw poll with 44 percent of the vote at the Georgia Republican Convention. Currently, 15,000 volunteers have signed on to the non-campaign of this non-candidate.

I’d better get moving and order my T-shirt, ball cap and bumper sticker before he announces so supplies don’t run out. The presidential race could get very exciting, very soon.

Stephanie Esworthy was director of Media and Public Relations and the Baltimore City Film Commission for former Mayors William Donald Schaefer and the late Clarence “Du” Burns and served as head of Baltimore City’s Bureau of Music in every city administration since Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin. Her personal experiences in local politics started in the early 1950s as the daughter of state’s attorney and chief judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Anselm Sodaro, now deceased.

She may be reached at steph21093@verizon.net.