Ramesh Ponnuru links to my post on Thompson and 1994 and says: "Thompson can, I think, legitimately claim to have the most consistently conservative record of any of the top four candidates." Soren Dayton has the numbers here. Ponnuru goes on to say that:
This back-to-the-revolution tactic illustrates how trying to win a primary makes candidates do things that aren't helpful in winning the general election. I know that a lot of conservatives believe that Republicans will come back if they recapture the ardor of 1994, but there is plenty of evidence that the country is not where it was back then.
Maybe! Still, it also seems to me that consistency and forthrightness have never hurt a candidate, whether in a primary or general election. Voters may not want '94 redux next year. But they probably will want to vote for the man or woman who they think gives it to them straight and has clear, principled positions on the great issue(s) of our time.