Fred gets bashed for calling for due process for Bin Laden. He later explained that he thought Bin Laden should be given the Gitmo treatment and interrogated. I don’t see what is wrong with this. In fact, the military commission process was designed largely for Bin Laden and other top terrorist leaders. The Israeli’s gave due process to Adolf Eichmann. Then they hung him. Sounds like a good plan for Osama. Given that as much as 30 percent of the Democratic base believes that 9-11 was an inside job, I think some sort of process to establish his monstrous guilt is fine, and Republicans stand to look foolish for jumping down Fred’s throat for this. Some due process does not have to mean the full Federal Court system. It just means we don’t shoot him in the back of the head. We are better than that, and I’m glad Fred is not afraid to say that.

Frankly, I am getting tired of GOP candidates getting killed for trying to be reasonable people. This race to sound the most bloodthirsty is not doing the party any good. Mitt Romney got bashed for saying the that surge was “apparently working” in the last debate. Of course the surge is apparently working! What else can we say honestly? Iraq is so big and so complicated that we can only come to conclusions based on the limited information we have. Why is it so awful to take a trust but verify approach to news from Iraq, given all the bad information we have been fed over the last three years? There needs to be room for reason in our party. I’m afraid we are losing that in the sound bite wars.

Thompson: 26%

Guiliani: 22%

Is this just a bump due to initial excitement over Thompson’s announcement, or will Thompson have staying power at the top of the field nationally? It remains to be seen, I’d say hold out until we see Thompson in a debate and the numbers following it to get a better guage of just how he is going to impact the race.

For now, though, Game On.

UPDATE: Scott Rasmussen’s analysis of the Thompson Bounce.

My buddy Mark Finelli will be on CNN tonight shortly after 7:00 to discuss the General Petraeus report. Find out more about Mark on his MySpace page.