That sounds exactly like what I heard from my in-laws, die-hard (relatively conservative) rust-belt union democrats (I posted this on another thread a while back).
I haven’t discussed politics with them since we got in a big argument back in the 90s over the Lewinsky saga. They have no idea whom I support. But out of the blue over dinner one night, my mom-in-law volunteered that she had seen Fred Thompson discussing Pakistan on Meet the Press, and she was thought he made a lot of sense. She then went on to discuss what he said about foreign policy in general — she was actually pretty enthusiastic. I couldn’t believe it. Without getting into my Thompson support, I quizzed my in-laws on the other candidates — here’s what they said:
Hillary ‘toon: it’s “time” for a woman president, but they don’t think she’s the right woman
Obama: they don’t know if they can trust him/he’s inexperienced
Giuliani: they wanted to like him because of 9/11, but as soon as he started pandering to the right (as they see it) when he’s always been so liberal, they got turned off.
Romney: they would never even consider him — not even an option they would think about.
(This was before the Huckabee spike, so I didn’t ask them about him)
If only Fred will pick a VP that democrats can really get behind.....like who?