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 Thompson Needs More RehearsalPosted on Oct 11, 2007WASHINGTON—For most of his first presidential candidates’ debate on Tuesday, Fred Thompson looked like a tennis umpire. Standing between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, peering down from somewhere above the fray, he would swivel his gaze to the left, then to the right, then to the left again, as Sampras and Agassi traded serves, volleys and cross-court backhands. You almost expected him to call the lines. “That one was out, Rudy. It’s deuce.” Hey, at least Thompson was present and accounted for, finally. And he did get off a terrific line at the end, saying that the umpteen Republican debates had been “getting a little boring without me.” But if his goal was to advance the narrative that he’s the next Ronald Reagan—another Great Communicator with the instincts, presence and glamour of a movie star—he didn’t make much progress. I’d suggest a bit more time in rehearsal. For one thing, Nancy would never have let her Ronnie show up for a televised debate wearing a jacket that draped so awkwardly at the neck. For another, it’s hard to imagine how an actor with such talent for exuding an air of supreme command—think of him in “Law & Order” or “The Hunt for Red October”—could fail to summon his inner Patton for such an important scene. Yes, I’m focusing on style rather than substance. Thompson’s supporters might think that’s unfair, since he was arguably less vague on economic issues—the intended focus of the debate—than his major competitors. He offered a specific fix for Social Security, for example, saying he would index benefits to prices rather than wages. The others simply promised to make everything better by growing the economy, which apparently means eliminating all taxation. Advertisement Getting a Republican elected president in 2008 is definitely going to require suspension of disbelief. Thompson’s debut wasn’t a disaster, but it was far from a tour de force. His opponents have had months to burnish their sound bites to a lapidary shine. Thompson doesn’t have sound bites yet; the lines he seemed to have practiced came out soggy instead of crisp. He did get better as the evening wore on, but he gave Romney and Giuliani no reason to stop sniping at each other—or at Hillary Clinton—and turn any serious fire on the new guy. Giuliani has the national poll numbers and a consistent message: Forget all those social issues and vote for me, or else Hillary wins and Bill comes back and the terrorists kill us all. Romney has those deep pockets and a clear advantage in the early states. John McCain has reassumed his most comfortable and effective persona, that of a professional wild card. And Thompson? It’s still unclear just where he’s supposed to fit in. I’m not sure he’s quite escaped the impression, brilliantly parodied by Darrell Hammond on “Saturday Night Live,” that he sorta, kinda wants to be president but isn’t as energized or single-minded in pursuit of the office as his opponents. That suggests a much healthier psychological makeup. But watching the debate Tuesday, you didn’t get the impression that any of the others were going to let him just amble to the nomination. From the way Giuliani and Romney went after each other, you could imagine how they’ll turn on Thompson the minute they perceive him as a real threat. As long as they stick with genteel “Law & Order” jokes, that’s a sign they think the Thompson boomlet may have already started to fade. Amazingly, Huckabee was the only candidate with the instincts to realize that you can’t stand on a stage in Dearborn, Mich.—amid the ruins of the once-great U.S. auto industry—and try to convince an audience that the economy couldn’t be finer. If Thompson had managed to mix a little economic populism with his folksiness, he might have carried the evening. As it was, the evening seemed to carry him. Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com. © 2007, Washington Post Writers Group  Previous item: Listening to America's Black Middle Class Next item: How Did a 12-Year-Old Become No. 1 Enemy of Conservatives? CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment |
Ideological Hypocrites
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By republicanSScareme, October 14, 2007 at 9:57 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Thompson Needs More Rehearsal.
Not to mention more brains.
Report thisBy boggs, October 14, 2007 at 6:42 pm Link to this comment
There were several candidates o that debate stage that didn’t have a clue, but ole Fred won the gold star for living with his head up his *ss.
Report thisHowever Freddie was able to tell us that he is quite happy with everything quite the way it is!!!!
Freddie ain’t losing his house or job or fortune! Well isn’t that nice for Fred?
By Grousefeather, October 14, 2007 at 7:16 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Give the guy a break! He’s just an actor trying to act like Ronald Reagen, so naturally he’ll come off looking like a bonehead. He’s got the part down as far as I can see.
Report thisBy mark, October 13, 2007 at 8:54 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Fred is a sad old man barely able to find his keys, and frighteningly a step up from GW.
Report thisBy mark edward smith, October 13, 2007 at 12:48 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Thompson is a joke, Romney is a simple minded yuppie, the rest are pathetic and we know it, 7eleven slushie drinking doormen, none of them are worth the air we breath while they stand up there and blatantly lie in our faces… and we listen.
But we need to stop blaming the candidates for being what they are, where they are…true, the idots rule at the moment and it is a monumental embarrassment world wide for America to trot out such fools as potential leaders…
But, we the people are the ones responsible for allowing America to sink to such a level through our own apathetic practices. We the people have allowed the consitution to be desicrated, we the people are allowing our civil rights to be destroyed.
We don’t act until the fire is in our living rooms and distracts us from American Idol or the Today show, we are the ones terrified of all thats being threatened by CIA, FBI, NSA, DHS, these people work for us! We pay them to violate us!
We are allowing pot bellied racist cops to tazer anyone their too lazy to bend over and restrain like their trained to do, they tazer for being talked back to…they tazer for being righfuly questioned… they fear no repercussion for violating our rights in any way, in part due to the lowering of the educational standards required for them to be civil servants on the first place.
Its all about the lesser of whatever evils we think we see, none of them are “wow” there’s a man (or woman), or “ah” a brain!
We compromise endlessly, and dither our expectations down because we think we have no choice.
Why are we not in the streets demanding more? Because we’re lazy, because we’re afraid of the wrong fear, because we’re too self absorbed and preoccupied.
I am neither Dem nor Rep, its an insulting concept anymore, its like Christian, or Catholic, Jew or Muslim…liberal or conservative, Americans need labels because their too insecure to hard being individual like we used to be. And i won’t be forced into the us or them box we Americans have sadly created and are forcing on ourselves.
You want an intelligent debate put Denis Kucinich onstage in front of Ron Paul and listen to facts, that would be an education, all the truth you don’t want to hear, or refuse to hear and face…the truth about our bankrupt system.
Yes those two unpretty non tv friendly fact chasers the media completely ignores who actually have a platform and speak all the so called boring truth, or gloom and doom we are so afraid of.
At least those two on both sides of the aisle tell it like it really is, no backslapping fairweather rehtoric from them.
It won’t get better til we look in the mirror folks, and if all we see in the mirror is a face like Thomspon or Schwarzengger the nightmare is wide awake!
Fred Thompson, Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears, Clarence Thomas…all the same pathetic distractions.
Wake up America!
Report thisBy Mariam Russell, October 12, 2007 at 8:35 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
When Reagan was running for pres, I was working in a hotel in the banquets area. We did a couple of events for the Reagan campaign, so I got to watch him in action both before the camera and behind it. He was literally like a turtle on it’s back behind the camera. I would have sworn he was unable to dress himself.
I understood at that time that the powerful had a deep disdain and total dis-respect for the voting public, and were knowingly selling them a “president dummy” and probably laughing about it in private.
So, I would be surprised if they ran anyone of substance, because a thinking person would cause problems, even one indoctrinated by one of our talented universities.
Report thisBy ocjim, October 12, 2007 at 7:47 am Link to this comment
Like Reagan, Thompson is an actor. Probably Thompson is a better actor in his medium. Reagan was more engaging in person, playing himself naturally seeming to be “Everyman.” Thompson doesn’t make a good politician because he’s not willing to make a sustained sacrifice for the effort of running a good race. The TV medium and film medium are sanitized and neat for him. Politics involves an outside world that he can’t control, is not accomadating and which doesn’t impress as easily. He is lazy and though brighter than W. has the same limited vision.
Report thisBy rage, October 12, 2007 at 3:52 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Ugly Freddy is going to need more than rehearsal to just stay away from polling in the single digits from now on. Unscripted lame attempts at humor only take a twit character actor so far in the world of real life.
Report thisBy thomas billis, October 11, 2007 at 10:41 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Mr Robinson I cannot believe you got carried away with the hype.Nixon thought he was and idiot and what has he done since then to convince you he is not.Just because the Republicans want something really really bad does not make it so.The art of spouting somebody elses words does not mean your words get any better.By the way even as an actor he does not bring back memories of Marlon Brando.Well there I go again knocking the latest reincarnation of Ronald Reagan.Who would of thought Reagan’s co star Bonzo the chimp could also get elected President.
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