Senior vice president and general counsel, PepsiCo
Age: 62
Details: He won good reviews as Bush's deputy attorney general from 2001 to 2003. Before that, he was a U.S. attorney for Georgia and a litigator with a big corporate firm in Atlanta. Thompson is an African-American conservative and a critic of racial preferences, like his close friend Justice Clarence Thomas, but he supported a "diversity outreach" program in hiring at the Justice Department. His amiability and race might provide a bit of insulation from liberals' attacks. But attack they would.
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This article appeared in the Saturday, July 26, 2008 edition of National Journal.
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