Posted on 08/18/2007 9:21:51 PM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON — He’s an actor-turned-politician in the mode of Ronald Reagan, someone who’s at ease in front of a camera or a crowd, a man who can charm an audience with a folksy tale or a clever turn of phrase.
But is Fred Thompson truly Reaganesque?
Reagan was, after all, the Great Communicator, a leader so skilled at connecting with his subjects that he has become the standard by which all would-be presidents are judged.
Thompson’s admirers, elated over his expected decision to seek the Republican nomination for president, already are hailing his candidacy as the second coming of Reagan.
The former Tennessee senator, an ex-prosecutor who plays a stern district attorney on the television crime drama “Law and Order,” is expected to officially enter the race sometime next month.
Like Reagan, Thompson believes in smaller government and fiscal conservatism.
But let’s put aside politics for a minute and focus on the other trait he shares with the last actor who was elected president — an innate ability to communicate, to tell a story in a way that captures the public’s attention.
Both men come across as strong, authoritative figures on stage and screen. Their speaking voices are fluent and resonant, though vastly different. Reagan’s was smooth, mellow, grandfatherly. Thompson’s is deep, gruff, sometimes gravelly. Both men were blessed with the gift of gab and a flair for spinning a good yarn.
But is Thompson Reagan’s equal as a communicator?
Thompson does have the Reagan touch, said John Geer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
“Thompson is at ease with the camera,” Geer said. “Certainly, Reagan was at ease with the camera. Second, at least from what I can see so far, Thompson, when he decides to be critical of somebody or question them, he does it in a way that has less of an edge to it than a lot of current politicians, and I think that is also Reaganesque.’’
In some ways, though, Thompson seems less like “the Gipper” and more like Sheriff Andy Taylor of the old “Andy Griffith Show,” Geer said.
“He has this kind of disarming quality about him, where he tries to use folksy kind of metaphors just like Taylor did,” Geer said. “But at the same time, Taylor was the most wily (man) in that entire city. Thompson is very smart as well, so he has this old country boy kind of routine that I think serves him pretty well.”
Clark Judge, who worked as a speechwriter for Reagan in the White House, also sees a little of Reagan in Thompson.
“Thompson has a very solid, reassuring presence at a podium and before a camera,” Judge said. “He comes across as someone you trust a lot. Look at him on some of his TV speeches, responses to State of the Union, that sort of thing. He’s very much someone who’s talking to you.”
One of Reagan’s greatest attributes, at least as an orator, was his ability to take written text and give it additional meaning, Judge said.
“For me, it was very, very different listening to Reagan before I started working for him and then listening to him when he was delivering text that I had actually written,” Judge said. “He would find meaning in the text and bring it out through his delivery.”
Judge said he doesn’t know whether Thompson has that talent because he’s never written for him. But, “Thompson is a very effective communicator, which is one reason he has moved up so fast (in the polls),” Judge said.
Others are less impressed by Thompson’s oratory skills.
“He’s no Reagan,” said John Kares Smith, a professor of communications at State University of New York in Oswego, an expert in presidential and political communication and a devotee of Thompson’s television show.
“Ronald Reagan had an ability and a real underestimated skill of being able to touch very deep-held American myths and beliefs,” Smith said. “When he would talk about the city on the hill, he really could resonate with our puritan past. Fred Thompson, I don’t think he has any of those skills at all.”
Thompson “just doesn’t connect the way Reagan did,” Smith said. “Reagan had maybe three ideas, and everybody knew what they were. He knew people. He had a wonderful sense of humor. Fred Thompson is not known for his humor.”
Reagan also was the eternal optimist and, like Franklin D. Roosevelt, used his speeches to raise people’s spirits, said David E. Johnson, a political consultant in Atlanta who worked on Bob Dole’s presidential campaign in 1988.
“That was Reagan’s whole persona,” Johnson said. “That’s what his greatness was, very much like Jack Kennedy. Thompson, on the other hand, is more a ‘just the facts’ type of person. He doesn’t lift to the oratorical lengths that Reagan or Roosevelt did or even Bill Clinton did.”
As evidence, Johnson cited a speech that Thompson gave to a group of Republicans last May. Some complained that the address, Thompson’s first as a prospective presidential candidate, was downright disappointing.
But whether Thompson can live up to the Reagan legend may be beside the point. He doesn’t have to be a Reagan clone to win the GOP nomination, Judge said.
“The real issue,” Judge said, “is how he compares to the rest of the field.”
Fred Thompson does have the makings of it. I just hope he makes up his mind soon.
I think I’ll buy some Orville Redenbacher and Jiffy Pop stock so that I’ll have some money to spend before the Democrat you help to elect takes it all away.
I suppose he is impressive to many, but to many others Mitt comes across as artificial. I am one of those many others.
Shouldn’t we retire the Gipper’s “Great Communicator” jersey, and only take it out for special occasions, not for primary season?
I’d like to see FredT KO Hillary or Obama in a debate before we start thinking/assuming those “great” thoughts.
Ah. Now THERE’S a “great communicator”! :-)
And which democrat would that be?
Rudy?
Mitt?
I think Romney is good in front of a camera, I like him. I don’t understand the thrill about Fred, he doesn’t do a thing for me.
At times, yes. Other times, a great windbag. ;^)
Mitt is the most genuinely accomplished person running for President on either side, based on his experience with the Olympics, venture capital, turning businesses around, and being Governor.
He’s going about his current challenge by running as a center-right conservative Republican. That’s not artificial, he’s simply running for President in the same vigorous success-oriented way he’s done other things. Should he get the nomination, he will be a formidable candidate, as he is quite articulate in debates and has run an efficient campaign. Should he win the White House, conservatives would have a President better than GWB on many issues (fiscal/spending, immigration), and at least as good on all the rest (life, Judges, GWOT, etc). JMHO.
No, the one you’re going to help elect. The beast herself. While you eat popcorn. Just ducky.
There’ll never be another Reagan but Thompson comes close enough for me.
How ‘bout this? Fred Thompson / Mitt Romney n ‘08.
With Fred’s communication skills and Romney’s superb organizational skills and throw in Newt as a campaign advisor.....Katie bar the door.
His current inconsistency in the I support/ I don’t support the Federal Marriage Amendment says anything but great communicator.
I have now a wait and see posture.
“Geer said. “Certainly, Reagan was at ease with the camera.”
That isn’t what made Reagan special. Reagan was at ease with himself because his beliefs were deeply ingrained in his being. Reagan lived and breathed it. He never had to pretend to be something he wasn’t unlike most politicians who have to manufacture their image and agendas.
Reagan was real, most politicians are phony and poll driven and are easily flipped.
Really? How’s that possible? All of the RudyMCRomney obsessed ones here say that only their man can beat her.
I say, go for it. MY vote will only go to someone that fits MY beliefs, not yours.
You might try that bs scare tactic over at du, FRiend, I ain’t buyin’ it.
“Mitt Romney is a more effective communicator of the factors involved in executive decision making than any candidate — for a long time — including Ronald Reagan “
That is the second time today that I have seen that exact wording.
Well, perhaps before you can get "unspun," you gotta get spun!
/s
“””The fact that he is even more articulate than the great communicator himself, Ronald Reagan is also a plus.”””
It wasn’t exact, but it could be another angle of attack on President Reagan by the Romney campaign and supporters.
So, unspun, perhaps you could explain explicitly what these supposed "factors" are?
Mitt Romney is a more effective communicator of the factors involved in executive decision making than any candidate — for a long time — including Ronald Reagan
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.