Fred Thompson is one presidential hopeful who got off to a great start and then promptly disappointed a lot of people. But there have been two instances when Thompson really impressed Clark. The first was when he laid out his proposal for overhauling Social Security. Now Thompson's flat income tax plan has interested Clark. The idea itself is not new; we briefly had a flat tax back in 1986. Back then most Americans paid a flat fee of 15 percent, while the ultra-rich paid 28 percent. It was that easy and streamlined. Thompson is proposing 10 and 25 percent, respectively. This proposed flat tax would be voluntary. If you still want to subject yourself to the arcane current tax system, you'd be welcome to do so. Or you could switch and fill out your streamlined tax return in about a minute! There wouldn't be any changes year to year in how you're taxed. Many of the world's most robust economies have simple, clean and clear tax systems. Having transparency builds creditability and confidence. As an added bonus, people don't cheat as much on their taxes when there's a flat tax system. Clark wants to stress that this is not a political show, and this should not be construed as an endorsement of Thompson. Clark just likes that Thompson had the guts to propose a flat income tax.