Thompson, who as we know is undeclared, beat out Brownback in a Michigan poll. He got 2% and what’s amazing is that he wasn’t included in the poll.
Frist says that Thompson will enter the race soon:

The former Senate Majority leader believes Thompson will decide to run for the republican nomination for president.

Bob Beckel believes that he would be a “nightmare” for the Democrats:

Bob Beckel, who managed 1984 Democratic nominee Walter Mondale’s campaign, called Thompson potentially a Democratic electoral nightmare because of his communications skills and ability to appeal to swing voters.

And finally, Basil Harrington doesn’t think that Thompson is conservative enough:

For the past few days, movement “conservatives” and GOP cheerleaders have been ecstatic that Fred Thompson, former Senator from Tennessee, may form an exploratory committee to seek the GOP nomination for president. “Now we’ll have a conservative in there,” said one person, who, I assume, has no idea what a real conservative is.
There already are two fine conservative candidates seeking the nomination: Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo. And Fred Thompson does not even come close measuring up to them.
Fred Thompson is a neocon globalist.
[…]
Although Fred Thompson is tougher than McCain and Giuliani on border enforcement, which isn’t saying much seeing how they line up with Barack Obama, he had a rather lackluster record on immigration while in the Senate. As one commentator notes: “Overall, Americans for Better Immigration gives [Thompson] a career grade of C; on chain migration, C; visa lottery, C-; reducing unnecessary visas, F; on reducing asylum fraud, C-; on reducing amnesties, D; and on interior enforcement, C+. Although he was tough on border control, he was lacking in almost every other area.”
Fred Thompson also supports affirmative action, and ideologically worships free trade, regardless how much it harms America. Historically, conservatives have opposed free trade, but Thompson, like others, has been “neoconned” into backing it.
[…]
Let’s pray that the more real conservatives learn about Fred Thompson, the more unacceptable he will appear. I, for one, should he receive the nomination, will vote Constitution Party.

It’s all very well and good for Basil Harrington to blast Thompson’s record on immigration and say that he’ll take his ball and go home if Thompson’s is the candidate but the problem is serious people (not those who will abandon the party if they don’t get their way) need to elect a president from the current poll of candidates. So we have to find the one that is the closest to our values. I know that all the top tier candidates would not meet this criteria (and I assume that only two of the second tier do). And on all the other conservative issues, none of them is a perfect match. I think that as the candidates interact with the public they will see that their immigration policy is wildly out of step with the electorate and it will evolve to reflect what the people want, as we saw with McCain yesterday. These people want the job and will move in the right direction to ensure that they get it.
Thompson is conservative where it really matters: he’s pro-life, pro-gun, pro-small government, he’s anti-tax and spend and he understands the war on terror. And he has a record to back this up. Plus (and this is a big plus) he is electable in the general election. I would put him up against Clinton any day.