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But if a change is in order, he suggested the highway be named for Davey Crockett, the Tennessee frontiersman who served in Congress as a libertarian-minded iconoclast before becoming a martyr fighting Santa Anna's Mexicans at the Alamo.

This kind of reaction to an honor that almost any politician would embrace -- former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson announced his presidential run from the Gov. Tommy G. Thompson Athletic Center -- is one more example of why the prospect of a Fred Thompson candidacy has so many voters genuinely excited and political consultants, candidates, and members of the chattering class either buzzing or looking warily over their shoulders.

It's a sense that the prospective Thompson run has a "lightning in a bottle" feel, with a candidate who is less packaged, prepped, and primped, and more at ease with the ideas and positions that he talks about. This is probably due in part to Thompson's physical stature, but also his demeanor on the stump. His basso profundo voice is as reassuring as his commonsense conservative worldview. And his positions appear to be more genuine and grounded in ways that put red staters at ease and blue state moderates at attention. Spend enough time with the man and you sense that all of this is not knee-jerk, but natural and instinctive. Which brings us back to his current jobs.

THOMPSON CLEARLY BELIEVES IN THE POWER of personality to shape change. In the world of modern communications we now live in, he thinks a key element of any president's success is his ability to connect with the American people. "The power of the bully pulpit is greater than ever," he says. "Reagan proved just how much you can accomplish if you can look the American people in the eye and tell them he needs their help to make tough choices that will make the future of themselves and their children brighter."

But Thompson says those tough choices shouldn't include the tax increases contemplated in the new budget released by Senate Democrats. "The phony static accounting the government uses has obscured just how successful the 2003 tax cuts have been in boosting the economy," he says. "Lower marginal tax rates have proven to be a key to prosperity now by Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush. It's time millionaires serving in the Senate learned not to overly tax other people trying to get wealthy."

Thompson clearly has empathy for people who are trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. He is the grandson of a sharecropper and the son of a used-car salesman who worked a succession of ten jobs to put himself through college and law school. His understanding of how hard it is for a family to buy the things it needs to survive drives his support for free trade.

"There is a tremendous benefit to making the world economy work for us, rather than fighting it," he says. That said, he has clear concerns about the desires of China and other potential adversaries to secure dual-use technologies that could be used against the U.S. or its allies. He notes that an American company has recently been handed a stiff fine for shipping night-vision goggles to China that could easily be used by their military. "We shouldn't shoot ourselves in the foot with protectionism," he says. "But we can also make sure we protect our vital interests by keeping our eyes open on how people want to take advantage of us."

IT'S TIME TO WRAP UP OUT INTERVIEW. Thompson has to wake up at 5 a.m. the next morning so he can tape three separate shows on the ABC radio network. The week I speak with him he is substituting for radio legend Paul Harvey, whose show is heard on more than 1,200 stations.

Fred Thompson changes out of the expensive Italian suit the Law & Order wardrobe shop has decided befits his character of New York prosecutor Arthur Branch so he can don a houndstooth sport coat and slacks. As he packs up his briefcase, he ruminates on just how he would conduct a presidential campaign that would break new ground. "I really mean it when I say the American people are ready for something beyond sound bites and imagery," he says. He recalls that Adlai Stevenson once said: "The trick is to do what's necessary to become president and still deserve to be president." As we amble out to his waiting car, it's clear that Fred Thompson is working hard on coming up with his own blueprint on how he can do both.

topics:
Transportation, Trade, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, Iran, NATO, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, Unions