Another plan released this week, and another home run. Even if Fred Thompson doesn’t win the primaries, the other candidates should pay attention. For all the talk about his percieved laziness, he sure has put together a policy plan that is second to none. Here’s some of the recent reviews of his tax plan that he released on Sunday:

Larry Kudlow has now become one of Fred Thompson’s most vocal admirers. Here is his take on the tax plan. BTW, Fred and Romney appeared on consecutive days on Kudlow, and I’ve not heard a thing about Romney from him since the day after his interview:

Good for Fred. Good for his excellent, broad based, tax-cut plan – including a flat-tax option and a corporate tax cut.

Good for him for snapping back at Fox’s Chris Wallace when he tried to pull a fast one by citing Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer as proof-pudding that Fred can’t win. Good for Fred for mentioning National Review and Investor’s Business Daily for speaking positively about his candidacy. (So, is it true that Fox is dedicating itself to Rudy?)

Good for Fred for showing fire, energy, and animation throughout the interview. It’s the same fire in the belly that I witnessed in our CNBC interview earlier this month.

Look, I have no idea whether Fred can win the GOP nomination. Frankly, I have no idea who is going to win it. And as I’ve written here before, I’m not picking sides. However, I do want a strong and determined Republican field. And I certainly think Fred has regained his footing.

I vastly prefer positive policy visions to down-in-the-mud trashing. (I know, I know, criticizing each other on the issues is a key part of politics.) But my great hope is that the Republican contenders will emphasize their key policy visions as the race heats up.

The Club for Growth has praised it twice. Here’s the most recent:

The Club for Growth praised Senator Fred Thompson for the release of his pro-growth tax reform plan this morning on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. The seven-part plan is the most comprehensive tax reform plan offered to date by a presidential candidate. The plan will:

· Permanently extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts
· Permanently repeal the Death Tax
· Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax
· Reduce the corporate tax rate to no more than 27%
· Permanently extend small business expensing
· Update and simplify depreciation schedules
· Expand taxpayer choice

Most commendable is Thompson’s plan to expand taxpayer choice by adopting the Republican Study Committee’s recent plan, called the Taxpayer Choice Act. This plan will give American taxpayers the choice of opting into a simplified tax code that contains only two rates rather than deal with the current monstrosity known as the U.S. tax code.
“While other candidates have adopted pieces of this plan, Thompson goes a step further by offering a specific corporate tax reduction and offering taxpayers the option of a simple tax plan,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “His plan is based on the fundamental fact that lower rates and simpler rules across the board promote economic freedom and enhance economic growth. This is the kind of plan economic conservatives can rally around.”

The other press release on Thompson’s plan from CfG:

The Club for Growth applauds Fred Thompson’s proposal to cut the top corporate tax rate from the current rate of 35% to 28%. Thompson deserves special kudos for ruling out a Charlie Rangel-like plan that would cut the corporate tax rate while raising other taxes.
“The United States has one of the most burdensome corporate tax structures in the world and the second highest rate in the industrialized world,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “We congratulate Fred Thompson for being the first Republican presidential candidate to propose a specific corporate tax cut and for recognizing the importance of lower taxes in promoting economic growth in this country. We look forward to hearing the details of his plan and encourage all the other candidates-Democrat and Republican-to join him in keeping American businesses competitive in the global marketplace.”

Quin Hillyer:

Lord knows I have blasted Fred Thompson a few times, but now he has followed his gutsy and philosophically solid Social Security plan and his on-target defense plan, and his hard-nosed immigration plan, with a tax-reform proposal that is deservedly earning plaudits from conservative experts.

Meanwhile, whether too late or not is anybody’s guess, but I do believe Thompson is seriously stepping up his game, and that he has an innate sense of political timing that may well turn the tide in his favor. Again, this is not a prediction, but merely an observation that Yogi Berra was right about when it ain’t over.

Investor’s Business Daily:

Yet most of the GOP presidential hopefuls have refused to act as across-the-board Reaganites. There would be nothing, for instance, to stop a one-time Southern Baptist minister from claiming the mantle of Reaganism. But erstwhile man of the cloth and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose appeal among evangelicals has raised him to within striking distance in Iowa, has continually attacked the Club for Growth, a major champion of conservative economic policies, as the “Club for Greed.”

Calling capitalists Scrooges is straight out of the liberal Democratic playbook. A more helpful retort from Huckabee would be to address the Club’s concerns about his approving an income-tax surcharge in Little Rock.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, on the other hand, has managed to gain the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee (a key stamp of approval from social conservatives) while at the same time espousing the boldest of economic solutions on both Social Security and tax reform.

Thompson would solve Social Security’s insolvency by giving Americans voluntary control of their own personal retirement accounts. He’d keep the Bush tax cuts, and he announced last weekend that he’d let taxpayers choose between the present, complex tax code and a simplified system with only two rates: 10% and 25%.

The movie star politician also proposes a Reaganesque rebuilding of our Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

The Republicans running for the 2008 presidential nomination are often accused of being unconvincing actors in repeatedly invoking the name of Ronald Reagan. Funny how the one real actor among them seems to understand what Reaganism is.

Liberty Pundit:

[This] has heavily swayed me toward endorsing Fred Thompson. Honestly, this is the first thing a candidate has proposed that has truly excited me about his or her candidacy.

Update by Brian: By far, this is the most detailed plan we’ve gotten from any Republican candidate, on any issue. And that’s what I want. I don’t want rhetoric, I want the details, boys. Tell me, in detail, what you stand for and what you plan to do.

HotAir’s Allapundit:

while Rudy and Mitt are throwing punches and Huckabee’s chattering about faith, he’s (Thompson) rolling out one policy proposal after another.

FloppingAces Curt endorses Fred today:

I support Fred Thompson for President of the United States. … His policies, his positions, and his principals lead me to this decision … So off to fight the characterization that the man doesn’t smile enough, or is too old, or is too tall, or whatever other complaint the pundits can find. The man has a great record, solid conservative positions, and would make a great President.

AND FINALLY….

Today’s Wall Street Journal:

Fred Thompson’s Presidential campaign has been struggling, in part because of a sense that he lacks passion and an agenda. But late last week he unveiled a tax reform that is more ambitious than anything we’ve seen so far from the rest of the GOP field.

Mr. Thompson wants to abolish the death tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax and cut the corporate income tax rate to 27% from 35%. But his really big idea is a voluntary flat tax that would give every American the option of ditching the current code in favor of filing a simple tax return with two tax rates of 10% and 25%.

Mr. Thompson is getting aboard what has become a global bandwagon, with more than 20 nations having adopted some form of flat tax. Most–especially in Eastern Europe–have seen their economies grow and revenues increase as they’ve adopted low tax rates of between 13% and 25% with few exemptions.

Well Folks, everything FDT has released policy-wise so far has gotten high marks from the right, universally. For the first month, people said Thompson didn’t have any ideas. Well, he is THE candidate with the best (not just my words) policies, and there is more to come. We’ve got respected pundits and analysts calling the other candidates out because FDT is churning out conservative proposal after conservative proposal. It might be worth thinking about.