How Serious A Candidate Is Fred Thompson?

I like the guy, but I'm not convinced the hype is backed by anything substantive. But, hey, I'm open to persuasion! Bainbridge is excited. Chait is worried. Matt disagrees. Zengerle sees another Wes Clark. Matt counters:

But what happened with Clark is that it seemed like he'd be a strong candidate - military background, southerner, etc. - but then it turned out he was really bad at campaigning. Thompson's actually campaigned before and it seems he was pretty good at it. If he stumbles, it'll be for some other, not-especially-Clark-like reasons.

My view: the more the merrier.