Tommy Thompson criticizes Bush Administration

Tommy Thompson, former governor of Wisconsin, he who accomplished so little of note when he ran Health and Human Services for President Bush's first term other than revealing to terrorists possible weaknesses in our food supply, announced that he's considering running for President (that's another nice chuckle today -frankly, Stephen Colbert has a better chance of winning the Republican primary much less the Presidency.).

But in so doing, he joins the swelling ranks of Republicans openly critical of the President (Nor does Thompson score many points for political courage, waiting until the President was on the other side of the globe before leveling the criticism.

Now it's true, the criticism is ever so slightly veiled but it's just a thin gauzy transparent veil and the dagger that Thompson is slipping in the back of the President on his way out of town is quite sharp:

"I believe the top issues for the presidential election are going to be energy and health care, and I think I have some of the best ideas in the country on both of them," he said by phone from Iowa, which holds the traditional opening contest in the presidential nominating race.

....

"I'm in an enviable position because I'm an expert [SIC] in most of those fields and can articulate a vision for America that is lacking right now," Thompson said.

Another way, apparently, that 43 is going to come to grips with being like 41: apparently he too lacks "the vision thing". It's sad - he really never is going to escape his father's shadow except in failing so much more dramatically and on a much broader scale.