If you draw a vertical line bisecting the chart, Thompson seems to be trying to occupy the exact center of Republican "space" in the Presidential race. The difference compared to his Senate positions no doubt reflects an effort to reposition himself to appeal to a national audience rather than his state-level constituency. Seems like a good strategy for any Presidential candidate.

I'm not sure how deep that would go, though. Averaging ratings across the board probably doesn't account well for the different levels of passion people feel about specific issues. Lots of single-issue voters out there, who'll pick a candidate on just one hot-button issue.

I took the test that tries to match a person to a candidate. In sympatico order: Kuchinich, Dodd, Clinton, Gravel, Obama, Edwards, Biden, Ron Paul, Richardson... at the first mainstream Republican candidate (not counting Libertarian Ron Paul), Giuliani, compatibility is 18%.

That certainly doesn't reflect the likelihood of how I'll vote. Thompson's repositioning is a cautionary tale: Don't put much faith in what a candidate claims to stand for, because it's situationally relative. A big factor in my decision will be simply my gut: Who is big enough for the job of President, and who isn't? Sorry, Dennis, but you don't have the right stuff. I see the right-stuff factor to some degree in Hillary and Biden, Ron Paul as a person despite an ideology I wouldn't want in charge, Obama might grow into it. In the negative column: Sorry, John Edwards, a goofy-grinned Howdy-Doody in the White House won't cut it.

In the Republican camp, while I was watching their debate the other night, several times individual candidates said one specific thing that appealed to me. The Reverend Huckabee spoke eloquently in response to the Fundamentalist gotcha question that left the other guys foundering in awkward insincerity. I wish I could split McCain in half: Wonderfully forthright and moral stand on torture, abysmally awful in supporting Bush's Iraq War. Ditto Ron Paul: Half his positions are refreshing common sense, the other half lunatic raving.

Admittedly, I have no use for Mitt-the-empty-suit Romney and Rudy 9/11 Giuliani. The rest are just sock-puppets apparently there to accessorize the real candidates.