Inside Fred Thompson's head

Taxes: Thompson believes in the economic power of low taxes: He's blogged in praise of President Bush's tax cuts: "They've been so good for our country in so many ways. Letting them expire would amount to a tax hike of historic proportions." Later, he wrote, "The economy can only really grow when you let people keep more of what they earn." Yet he has indicated all taxes may not be equal. FOX News' Chris Wallace asked Thompson in March if he would reduce America's dependence on foreign oil by raising the gasoline tax. Thompson demurred, "Well, you're getting a little bit further down in the weeds than I want to go right now. I don't know. I'm studying it. I don't know the answer to that question."

Entitlement reform: Thompson argues fervently that Social Security and Medicare must be overhauled or they will bankrupt the country. He said he would have voted against adding the prescription drug benefit to Medicare. He will not say how he would fix Social Security but has hinted that current beneficiaries might have to give something up. He told the Weekly Standard that his plan "is based on the proposition that granddad and grandmom will be willing to sacrifice a little bit if they feel like it helps their grandkids avoid financial disaster and that their sacrifice is not going to be wasted down some government rathole."

Iraq war: Thompson calls for increased spending on defense and told Wallace in March that when it comes to the war in Iraq, "I would do essentially what the president's doing. I know it's not popular right now, but... we're the leader of the free world whether we like it or not. People are looking to us to test our resolve and see what we're willing to do in resolving the situation that we have there." He added if the U.S. hadn't removed Saddam Hussein, "things would be worse than what they are today."

He also told Republicans in a June speech that the U.S. is facing "a battle between the forces of civilization and the forces of evil, and we've got to choose sides." He warned that if the U.S. leaves Iraq "under bad circumstances, we're going to have a haven down there for terrorists. The whole area, I'm afraid, will become nuclearized."

NBC News video Thompson makes '08 run official Sept. 6: Republican ex-senator Fred Thompson launches his run for president on the "Tonight Show." NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports. Today show

Guns:. Thompson is an ardent supporter of gun rights and wrote in National Review Online that if Virginia Tech students aged 21 and older had been allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus, they might have saved themselves from the crazed gunman. Of the university administration, he wrote: "I challenge their decision to deny Americans the right to protect themselves on their campuses."

Global warming: He recently poked fun at growing worries about climate change, noting that temperatures on uninhabited planets also have been found to be rising. "This has led some people to wonder if Mars and Jupiter... are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle," he wrote.

What else is in Fred's head? We are about to find out.

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