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This is an unusual thing to do. However, we are in very unusual times.

We do not see much bipartisan-type support for the supposedly three leading announced candidates for president in both the Republican and Democrat party contests. And there is not an especially driving support for any candidate especially in the Republican competition.

We feel that it is highly important that our nation select a leader that has great integrity, a lot of common sense and who is not tightly tied to being a politician. We have too many strictly politicians already.

It is important that we elect a man who is of the people, who will listen to common sense and not be financially tied by donations and other reasons to the oil industry, the automobile industry or any other segment of the economy. He needs to be a candidate of the people.

We have most difficult problems facing our country. While the Iraq War is a major one, in reality it is no more pressing than the need to address:

- Immigration and the problem of more than 12 million people living unlawfully within our boundaries.

- Funding for Social Security which could soon become a disaster.

- Getting a handle on health care, making it more accessible to low income residents and taking positive steps to reduce the cost of American-developed prescription medicines which we pay more for than do residents of other nations.

- Providing much better care for the many veterans wounded in this and other wars.

Some of the issues with slightly lesser importance:

- Doing a better job of being prepared for natural disasters resulting from hurricanes, floods, drought and wildfires.

- Re-equip our national guard units who had to leave most of their equipment in Iraq. In some states should the governors need to call out the guard they would have to rent a bus or hitch a ride to the scene of the disaster.

- Continue to improve the emphasis on terrorism. It is on our doorstep, cells are among us.

No one person alone can bring all this about. It depends on Congress and a president that can provide a less confrontational leadership, who has had experience, who listens to the people on both sides of the aisle, who keeps his word and does what is best for our nation.

Whether he should run as a Republican or chose the more difficult trail as an independent, we think former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson from Tennessee could fill the job better than any among the announced candidates in both political parties.

Political party conventions are down the drain. Party nominees probably will be decided in the early February 2008 primaries, as much as six months prior to the party conventions and nearly nine months before the actual election.

So, now is the time to be thinking seriously about who should be our next president. Fred Thompson as a person is much the same as the solid roles he frequently plays in television shows. He is smart, experienced in law and government, he is not looking for a job nor is he tightly bound to any political agenda. We think he owes it to the people of the nation to seek the office of President of the United States.

This is not a home-state endorsement of a non-candidate darkhorse hopeful. We think he is the person that can best fill the office of President of the United States.

Our voice on Fred Thompson