Fred on the GWOT (Video interview)

The Weekly Standard/PajamasMedia ^ | November 21, 2007 | Dean Barnett

[2ndDivisionVet]

Roger L. Simon, last seen cavorting with Pajama clad babes on the floor of the BlogWorld convention like a latter day Hugh Hefner, sat down with Fred Thompson to discuss the Global War on Terror. Bob Owens, proprietor of the excellent Confederate Yankee blog, joined Roger in conducting the interview. I linked to this yesterday in my Republican race Q&A, but the interview itself merits a little post of its own. In no particular order, a few observations:

1) The long form interview allowed Fred to express his knowledge and thoughts on the war on terror. He was impressive. Believe me, I would love to insert some sort of "He didn't doze off once!" piece of snark, but what I really thought after the interview is how nice it would be if all the candidates in both parties understood the issue and its subtleties as comprehensively as Thompson obviously does.

2) The interview in itself represented a step forward for the blogosphere. The production values were outstanding, on a par with what you see on television. This is a rarity (to say the least) for the blogosphere. And as intimated above, the substance was quite unlike anything you'd see on TV. The video might well be a landmark for new media; two bloggers conducted a better interview than anything anyone on network TV could pull off.

3) Bob Owens was a lot younger than I expected.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Excellent!

[reasonisfaith]

It’s a good interview. As always, Thompson is direct, honest and sincere.

[TLI]

The production values were outstanding, on a par with what you see on television.

what I really thought after the interview is how nice it would be if all the candidates in both parties understood the issue and its subtleties as comprehensively as Thompson obviously does.

I believe that is the very reason DBM is being a bit distant with Fred. Few if perhaps any of the talking heads can interview Fred without looking a bit "dull." Fred is able to discuss in depth very complex issues quite accurately. And when he does not know something, that is exactly what he says... "I don't know."

His best quote in the video?

"This is a rare opportunity to talk about these things in more than 15 second sound bites."

Dang right!

[Bobbisox]

I just watched this interview. Very in depth, direct and to the point. It was very good. Fred is very good in these one on one interviews.

The MSM is truly scared that FRED will get this nomination. I also just watched the FoxNews interview. It was good and I’m glad he finally jumped in their poop about their obvious bias. Someone had too...he is not afraid of anything.

[papasmurf]

Very astute of you.

That’s the reason they give him backhanded compliments and try not to let him stray from THEIR talking points. He knows more about the subject than do they.

[papasmurf]

S’pose this is a “damage control” piece? Kind’a like a “let’s make up” offer?