TVNewser founder turned NY Times reporter Brian Stelter reports:

Several of the supporting actors in this year’s Republican primary are showing interest in the medium, too. Fred Thompson, the “Law & Order” star turned presidential candidate, will begin hosting a two-hour show in March, as the syndicator Westwood One is expected to announce this week. Mr. Thompson’s show would take the place of Mr. O’Reilly’s.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and a Republican presidential candidate, had been in negotiations with Westwood One for Mr. O’Reilly’s time slot, according to two people with knowledge of the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because a deal was not struck.

This should be fantastic! I’m pretty pumped to see where this goes. Fred has a stunning intellect and a unique style that should be a good fit. A few questions:
> What does this mean for FredPAC?
> Will the show include long-form essay-style content like when Fred filled in for Paul Harvey?
> Will there be cowbell jokes?
> Will Fred leave Mars?
> Will Alan Colmes be intimidated into leaving radio altogether?

As Frank Luntz explained to a PBS Frontline crew in 2004*, calling for the abolition of an “estate tax” was not effective; calling for the abolition of a “death tax” resonated much better and made the issue a winning one for the Republicans.

It is my opinion that one of the reasons Barack Obama won last night is that his language was better-tested and better-suited for the United States of 2008. This is not meant as a slight on Senator Obama, but rather a compliment. I believe that there is nothing wrong with couching an argument in your own terms. In this election, Republicans were blindsided by the tsunami of hope and change, and were never able to break through with competing language that made Republican ideas sound good to our increasingly post-modern electorate.

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Fred is back behind the desk (without the cigar) for a little serious talk about the direction of this country:

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Based on CNN’s transcript, here are the word clouds from Senators McCain and Obama from tonight’s debate.

John McCain’s:

Barack Obama’s:

Word clouds were created with Wordle.

Allow me to preface this diary entry by saying that the combination of Fred Thompson and Sarah Palin have me excited about the race and the future of this country and party in a way I have not been since Fred ended his candidacy on Tuesday, January 22. It’s been a long few months, but it’s good to be back and to think (maybe naively) that FredCons are still important to the party.

Having said all that, Joe Biden (Obama’s gift to Republicans), has responded to Fred’s masterful speech at the RNCC:

I heard ‘Red October’ hunting for votes,” Biden said at the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers, Fla., “and Fred got up there and said, ‘Well, the Democrats are going to raise your taxes, because they say they’re not going to raise taxes, but they’re going to raise taxes on business and that’s going to affect your food.’

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