I haven’t been paying much attention to the seemingly never ending list of people considering running for POTUS in 2008. Sure I know the big ones, but I’m not excited enough about any one of them to get behind their candidacy. I’ve been motivated by my dislike of a candidate.

But all that’s about to change.

The former Senator from Tennessee (no not that one, the other one) is considering running for the GOP nomination in 2008.

WALLACE: There’s been a lot of buzz, as we said, in Republican circles that there’s no true conservative in the GOP presidential field. Now some top Republicans, including your friend former Tennessee senator Howard Baker, are putting out trial balloons about you possibly entering the race.

Question: Are you considering running for president in 2008?

THOMPSON: I’m giving some thought to it. Going to leave the door open.

WALLACE: Well, you say leaving the door open. What’s going to go into your decision-making process, what factors? Why would you do it? And what do you see — do you see some holes in the current Republican field?

THOMPSON: It’s not really a reflection on the current field at all. As you know, some of them are very good friends of mine. I’m going to wait and see how it pans out, see how they do, how it develops.

A lot of people think it’s late already. I don’t really think it is, although the rules of the game have changed somewhat.

Part of it is internal, a little self-examination on my part. Adlai Stevenson, I guess it was, said, you know, the trick is to do what’s necessary to be president and become president and still deserve to be president. And that’s serious consideration.

I’m concerned about what’s going on in the country, in our world, always have been. Just the fact that I left the Senate did not negate that in any way. I’ve been involved in national security issues and things of that nature since I’ve been out of the Senate.

I think we’re going into one of the most perilous times that our country has been in. I think that there are great opportunities out there.

But it’s not preordained that we’re going to remain the strongest and freest nation in the history of the world. We’ve got to do some things well. We’ve got to do some things differently.

Fred Thompson is one of my favorite former Senators (my favorite being Alan Simpson - love that guy). I don’t agree with all of Senator Thompson’s positions, but he’s a man who comes across as reasonable and open to discussion. I like that. And you know what else I like about the guy - he has something going on in his life other than politics. He hasn’t built his entire life around Washington and the games those people play.

I’d still like to hear more about his position on economic matters, tax policy and the like. But the race just got a whole lot more interesting to me.

(hat tip Redstate.com)