Free trade, immigration, dollar policy, and just a little Wal-Mart bashing were on the menu yesterday afternoon at Chicago's downtown Standard Club. CNN host and rumored presidential aspirant Lou Dobbs was in town, entertaining a lunch crowd with a quick Q & A and book signing. The highlights were many - and lively.

When asked, for instance, if anyone in the audience had a presidential candidate they were "genuinely enthusiastic" about, only five hands were raised out of the roughly 160 people in attendance. The tally: Obama 3, Giuiliani 1, Biden 1, Dobbs 1. Further questions covered our massive pile of unfunded entitlements (the $53 billion question that most presidential candidates avoid like the plague), media bias, and, interestingly, whether or not our politicians are just giving Americans what they want: more and more consumerism at the price of more and more debt.

Dobbs, as his familiars might guess, disagreed with the latter, centering his talking points on two unrepresentative parties and the need for an independent, populist candidate - one who, he predicted, would surface in "the next 90-120 days...same timing as Ross Perot. We need this desperately."

Could it be you, Lou? "I have absolutely no one in mind when I make that prediction," Dobbs said. "If I did, I would be on their doorstop, begging them to run." As they say in his business, stay tuned.