Not too long ago I jumped on the Fred Thompson presidential bandwagon.  The catalyst was Mitt Romney’s “I’d sic my lawyers on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad” debate gaffe, but I had been leaning toward Ready Freddie without formally committing almost as long as he had been teasing his candidacy.

Well, I just took the “select a candidate quiz” that Doug highlighted earlier today, and the results were most gratifying:

1) Fred Thompson

2) Duncan Hunter

3) John McCain

4) Mitt Romney

5) Tom Tancredo

6) Mike Huckabee

7) Rudy Giuliani

For the record, if Ron Paul is a Republican, I’m skinny.  Ditto “Sailor” McCain, really, for whom I would not vote if Hillary were a desert and Darth Queeg a drink of water.

Maybe I should say the results are most frustrating, when laid alongside the current polls, which show #6 and #8 battling for the national lead, and #4 with a leg up in the two earliest states.  It makes me wonder how close attention the GOP nominating electorate is really paying only a month away from the first ballot-casting that the one candidate who comes personally, charismatically, and philosophically closest to the legacy of Ronald Reagan is languishing in, at best, the middle of the pack.

If somebody can show me the successful track record of openly liberal Republicans in national elections, feel free to leave a comment.  That way I may come to understand this burgeoning party-wide amnesia.