Fun at the circus

As the Republican primaries move into full swing, its nice to see at least one of the more genuinely conservative candidates, Fred Thompson, starting to pick up support.

After a poor showing in Iowa, Thompson has finally started to go on the offensive and arguably came out on top in the debate in New Hampshire. A pleasing example of this was his criticism of neoconservative Rudy Giuliano for running an illegal alien "sanctuary city" as Major of New York.

I don't know much about Thompson's previous record on immigration, but he at least appears to be a man who is willing to listen to grass roots opinion and sense which way the wind is blowing. Whether Thompson can be considered a serious contender for the Presidency is debatable, he's cuts a reasonably impressive figure (he should do, he is an actor) but he lacks the political savvy of John McCain and doesn't come across as intelligent as the highly articulate Mitt Romney. Romney's only real weakness from a campaign perspective is the fact that his impressive package of good looks, curtesy, intelligence and debating skill seems a little too good to be true.

Besides Thompson, the only other other candidate who is taking a serious stance on immigration is paleo-libertarian maverick Ron Paul. Despite his poor showing in the debates, Paul's honesty and humour is at least providing some light relief from the polished cliches of more fancied contenders like Huckabee and Romney, and thanks to the wonders of satellite television he's become an unlikely hero among some kiwi libertarians (It's nice to see some political enthusiasm guys, but we don't actually get to vote in this one).

While It's unlikely Paul will ever make in into the Whitehouse, he does have the opportunity to really take the other candidates to task over US foreign policy and its connection to the country's fiscal health.

Where is an indebted America supposed to get the money to fight two ongoing wars in the Middle East, secure its southern border, and pay for pensions and Medicare? Surely something has to give?

Unfortunately though, he can't seem to resist going off on minor tangents, such as American arms sales to the Middle East, instead of asking the other candidates hard questions on spending priorities. When Paul says things like, and "in any case we haven't got the money," he seems to assume America's dire fiscal problems are already common knowledge and that most people have an intimate knowledge of the differences between Austrian and Keynesian economics.

Forget the blimps, sort out some basic bullet points that the average voter can understand and remember.

Whatever happens in the US elections, I'm hoping conservative voters don't decide to vote for one of the neoconservative candidates like Giuliano, just because he isn't a Democrat.

In politics as in sport, nothing hurts more than an own goal.