Posted on 10/22/2007 5:39:51 PM PDT by americanophile
After seven years of suffering through the mangled articulations of President George W. Bush, and the juvenile, curiously incongruent attitude that has him joking at wartime press conferences, many in the GOP are looking for a savvy and articulate leader.
The “Bush fatigue” as it is commonly referred to is not simply confined to liberals and the international community. In candid moments most dedicated Republicans will admit to the palpable discomfort experienced by his own supporters while watching a Bush press conference.
Bush’s failure to be able to effectively articulate even the simplest of positions has left his party and the Nation without an effective advocate on a host of critical issues. Indeed, even Bush’s most impressive domestic achievement - an economy that has enjoyed nearly 6 years of uninterrupted growth is known by critics as ”the greatest story never told.”
There is no doubt that the mainstream media has consistently opposed and undermined the President from day one, but given the proclivities of the press, this is entirely unsurprising. That a modern White House communications team could be this ineffective despite nearly seven years of practice and a press office once headed by someone with as much media experience as Tony Snow is further evidence of the centrality and importance of any president’s ability to articulate a clear vision.
Given this reality, and the real sense of fatigue, Fred Thompson’s folksy demeanor and simplistic explanation of policy sound far too familiar to imbue him with the quality of competence or the sense of change that most voters are desperately seeking.
Indeed, Thompson’s single best retort in Sunday’s debate came in response to a question about his own widely perceived laziness. While his supporters cheered him, the reality is that effective presidential campaigns are not won by playing defense.
Despite the hopes of many, Thompson is clearly outmatched by several of his articulate GOP rivals, and his country tune out of place with an audience itching for an effective voice for conservatism.
Try an audience itching for a CONSERVATIVE! I don't care if Thompson doesn't fit the slick professional speechgiver mold everyone is supposedly looking for. He is the only conservative in the race who has any chance at all to win. Thus he has my support.
That's probably true to some degree, but then he hasn't had the experience the others have had in articulating a lie to sound like the truth.
Fred’s ‘fumbling’ around at the start of his first debate??
kind of reminded me of Adm Stockdale in the ‘debate’ with the two weinies, algore and Dan Quayle....The poor Adm didn’t realize you WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO THINK OF AN ANSWER, you were just supposed to look ‘pretty’ and spout out the first thing that came out of your mouth....the public perceived a fine gentleman as a ‘dolt’ when in essence they were dealing with an intellectual, who, in a serious MEANINGFUL debate would have wiped the floor with those two ‘fools’....
Who runs that blog? I look all over that site and couldn’t find any names.
Nothing like believing unsigned articles...
How did I get on your ping list?
Yah right...Fred pw3ned all of them last night.
Fred will be far better than Bush at handling the moonbats during his Presidency. Fred has already pw3ned Moore, Chrissy, and Colmes and he has hardly even warmed up.
Were we watchin' the same TV show?
ok then....send a Yankee to the White House.
Media -> southern accent = stupid
Huckabee is OBL
Good point. Go Fred!
The reason FT's folksy talk does not go over well with me is (1) it is boring and (2) we are not living in simplistic neighborly times. Life and events are moving like lightening. It's like he is in another era. I like the guy but not for Pres.
I agree completely with this article and don’t want to listen to this hick for the next five years! I don’t agree with his religiosity, but Hukabee is the most inspirational of the bunch, in my opinion. In the end, I will vote for whoever is nominated.
Yes, I'd vote for him to run weight watchers! LOL, not any there, there!
although I haven’t paid much attention to him, Huckabee seems to me to be like Kemp, who sat there during the VP debate while Gore (paraphrasing) bullied “ You’re one of the few Republicans I know who’s not a racist,” then says, “gee, thanks Al.”
Thompson has no chance of winning. To begin with his appearance is against him. He doesn’t look just old, he looks ancient. And in the debate last night, the camera caught him several times making frantic, nervous, chewing motions as if his dentures had come loose. His haggard, drawn face and the enormous bags under his eyes remind me of Roosevelt’s appearance at Yalta. He looks ill and if you compare his appearance with previous photographs of him it is apparent that he has lost a considerable amount of weight in the last several years. The argument that appearances don’t matter, that only one’s so-called conservative credentials are important, is hooey. Ask Nixon what happened to him in his televised debate with John Kennedy. Nixon had just come out of the hospital after being treated for a knee infection. He had lost weight and his clothes hung on him. He was pale and sweating. Kennedy beat him on appearance alone.
Thompson’s final answer supposedly refuting the charges that he is lazy was bizarre. He began by referring to the fact that he was married at 17 and then finished by bragging that he has two kids of kindergarten age. What’s that supposed to prove? That’s he’s not lazy, he’s virile? He is sixty-five years old and has two children who aren’t even school age yet. Considering that he has a disese for which the life span generally is about ten years, his wife will be left a widow with young children to raise on her own. I don’t call that virile, I call it irresponsible. And it won’t go over with women voters.
Bragging that you were married in a shotgun wedding at seventeen and have little kids in your 60s to a woman who is young enough to be your daughter suggests the stereotype southern white trash to me. If I were Thompson, I wouldn’t be calling attention to it.
LLS
“hick”?
“southern white trash”?
Who let the elitist idiotarians in?
They’re certainly coming out of the woodwork tonight.
Maybe someone can flip the light on and let the cockroaches scurry away?
Thompson doesn’t know how to streetfight in these debates. Rudy does, and surprisingly I think Huckabee does as well. they both have brilliant comedic timing and know how to milk a moment for maximum effect. They can think on their feet and they go for the jugular.
it’s not something that can be taught. You either have it or you don’t . Reagan had it, Bill Clinton had it. Dubya for all his mangling of the English language definitely has it. Elizabeth edwards probably has it too.
Romney and Hillary are both well prepared but they don’t have it. If they get “off book”, they can be thrown.
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