GEORGE W. BUSH — A DIVIDER, NOT A UNITER: “Such is the low esteem of George Bush’s America in the rest of the world that Britain and France are fighting over which of them is our closest ally.”

LIBERTARIANISH LAW PROFESSORS on who they support for President and why.

It’s not quite the same thing — I haven’t lined up behind anybody yet — but here are some thoughts of mine on the field.

A LATE-BREAKING SURGE FOR THOMPSON? According to Zogby, anyway. . . .

ZUBRIN UPDATE: In response to our podcast, senior McCain policy advisor Doug Holz-Eakin emails:

Obviously, we agree with flex-fuel vehicles. From McCain’s energy speech to CSIS in April:

“We need not wait for another age, in which science fiction becomes every day reality. Flexible-fuel vehicles aren’t futuristic pie in the sky. We can easily deploy such technology today for less than $100 per vehicle; and we must develop the infrastructure necessary to take full advantage.”

Perhaps some of the other candidates will want to weigh in?

UPDATE: Some thoughts from Autoblog.

DEALING WITH FEAR though forgetfulness. It’s not quite the same thing, but on the few occasions where I’ve seemed to act with conspicuous bravery, I was in fact oblivious to any danger. Hey, I’m a professor. We’re supposed to be absent-minded.

ROGER SIMON WILL BE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE interviewing McCain and Giuliani for Pajamas Media, and he’s asking blog readers to suggest questions.

SAY UNCLE says he’s found a case of anti-gun sockpuppetry: “Anyway, the telling thing about NRAFOUREVER is that he had to create what was the stereotypical gun owner in his mind and act on it on the internet.”

BILL WHITTLE POSTS A NEW ESSAY: Forty Second Boyd and the Big Picture.

IN THE MAIL: David Young’s new book, The Founders’ View of the Right to Bear Arms – A Definitive History of the Second Amendment. Very timely.

HEH: “I can’t help but think that the Times’ editors’ thought process is something like this: if I absolutely had to talk to a conservative Republican at a cocktail party, who would it be?”

AUSTIN BAY WILL BE ON FOX NEWS around 9:45 this morning, talking about his Terrorists’ Tet column.

THIS COULD BE MY next Mazda. Well, in my dreams.

MICHAEL TOTTEN POSTS a new report from Fallujah.

LEFT OUT: Iowa caucuses discourage participation by many voters.

BE WHAT YOU WOULD SEEM: Becoming Cary Grant.

MILTON FRIEDMAN debates Naomi Klein.

GAY MUSLIMS in Berlin.

A LOOK AT Hillary and the youth vote.

WHAT’S WRONG with NGOs.

GIULIANI’S STRATEGY, unveiled.

FRED THOMPSON: Too sane to be President? Quite possibly.

Fred Thompson is in the middle of a 40 town Iowa tour – so he is hardly lazy. And he does go on television shows – thus dealing with critics, such as myself, who attacked him for not going on enough shows. But what sort of person would enjoy all this?

A lunatic. Someone who was interested in office for its own sake – not as a means to reduce the size and scope of government.

What the media, including Fox News (the only non-leftist news station and, therefore, of vital importance in the Republican nomination process), are saying is that Fred Thompson is too sane to be President. It is not enough to produce detailed policies for dealing with the entitlement program Welfare State (a cancer that is destroying the United States and the rest of the Western World), or producing a new optional flat tax (individuals could continue to use the existing system if they wished to) to deal with the nightmare of complexity that the income tax has become.

It is not even enough to have a long record of service, going back to Watergate and taking down a corrupt Governor of Tennessee in the 1970’s. And having one of the most Conservative voting records in the United States Senate – before leaving it in disgust at how the system did not allow real reform.

No – someone has to enjoy the prospect for office for its own sake, not to reduce the size and scope of government and restore a Federal Republic. One must enjoy the whole process of politics – i.e. be crazy. Or one must pretend to enjoy it – i.e. be a liar.

And then people complain that politicians are either crazy or corrupt. When they shoo away anyone who comes along who is neither crazy or corrupt.

I think he’s right. Thompson is running the kind of campaign — substantive, policy-laden, not based on gimmicks or sound-bites — that pundits and journalists say they want, but he’s getting no credit for it from the people who claim that’s what they want. It’s like in Tootsie when Dustin Hoffman tries doing the things he’s heard women say they want from men, only to discover that they don’t really want those things at all . . . . Related post here.

IN THE NEW ATLANTIS, Rand Simberg reviews Michael Belfiore’s Rocketeers. My review of that book is here.

HEH: Huckabee Unveils Dirt He Won’t Use Against Rivals.

BECAUSE THEIR REPUTATION ISN’T LOUSY ENOUGH ALREADY: Saudi Arabia arrests a blogger.

Here’s the Free Fouad site. The Saudi Embassy page is here. Of course, if you really want to scare ’em, send a copy of Bob Zubrin’s book . . . .