Fred Thompson knows what’s like to be a famous Tennessean campaigning for the Senate. In 1994, he won a seat in the upper chamber after appearing in films like The Hunt for Red October and Die Hard 2. So what does he make of Harold Ford Jr., the former Volunteer State congressman turned MSNBC pundit/New York banker who is mulling a primary run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.)?

“I read his Wall Street Journal interview a few weeks ago and thought they slipped and published an old interview with Ronald Reagan,” laughs Thompson, in a conversation with National Review Online. “To me, he’s a very interesting political personality. He’s black and moderate — politically in the center or even the center-right. This year, even in New York, that looks like the place to be. I wouldn’t sell him short. He’s charismatic, with more savvy than the current senator, plus he’s not some knee-jerk liberal. When you look at what happened in Massachusetts, I think some Democrats may say that someone like him is the ticket this year when they think about what kind of candidates they want coming out of their primaries.”