The REAL "Two-Man Race" Taking Shape?

Hey, if the Romneylan Praetor can spin that yarn, why can't I?

Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said yesterday that New York City isn't a model for the rest of the country and that Rudy Giuliani should stop basing his policy stands on what he did as that city's mayor.

Thompson, campaigning at a Lakes Region gun store with stuffed moose and deer overhead, told reporters that Giuliani too often turns to his time as New York mayor to explain his support for stronger gun restrictions.

"He relates everything to New York City. Well, New York City is not emblematic of the rest of the country, I don't think. I think the sentiments of those people in the rest of the country are in support of the Second Amendment - which is where I've always been and I don't think he's ever been," Thompson said.

Ah, that's my guy, pointing out obvious chinks in his opponents' armor that nobody else dares to point out. I've always questioned the thinness of Rudy Giuliani's political resume. The modern path to the presidency almost always flows through a governor's office (which, yes, favors Mitt Romney and Mike Hucka-plucka), and while the mayoralty of the nation's largest city is arguably at least as viable as a senate seat, one has to question whether reigning as chief executive over a municipality, however large, is truly anywhere near a governorship's equivalent. Somehow, "I called out the Twelfth Precinct" makes Michael Dukakis riding around in that tank look like George Patton with both pearl-handled Colt-45s.

Particularly when that city is the citadel of political and cultural leftism. And never let it be forgotten that it is doubtful in the extreme that Giuliani could ever have ascended to rule over Gotham had he not been completely in the social liberal tank. His controversially opaque stance on gun rights is an outgrowth of the same dynamic.

Do not forget as well that Governor Romney, while, yes, a former governor, was also the ruler of a state at least as left-wing as New York City, and also made his apostate compromises to gain and retain the high office he sought.

It seems ironic to me that in a time in which voters, particularly GOP voters, say they're tired of pandering politicians, there's a genuinely conservative alternative whose philosophical immutability is beyond dispute and who is absent the steamer trunk of masks for every campaign occasion.

Confronted by Rudy "Trust Me" Giuliani and Mitt "Plasticman" Romney, my heart for Fred "I'm just Fred" Thompson grows all the fonder.

And yes, I'm "sticking to my guns" on that commitment....