Yes! Nice photo of Laura with Ann and Mitt in Iowa from Laura's website.
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.”
Me, too. Fred is so unpretentious. :)
The Nurse Ratchett contingent.
“Bob Dole redux.”
Not even close. At his best, Dole was dry as bread, and most of the time, had the personality of a wounded badger. Thompson is nothing like that at all.
Yes! Nice photo of Laura with Ann and Mitt in Iowa from Laura's website.
Nice non sequitor post there. You continue in your habit of taking a snippet, twisting and attacking a strawman to make your point. I asserted that all our current candidates would be better than Ford was on abortion. Talking of the ‘Ford position’ is meaningless gibberish outside that context.
Platform says: “We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.”
Ford appointed Justice Stevens. None of the current presidential candidates will be as bad as Ford was in appointing liberal judges like Stevens. If you want to dispute that, and tell us how fine a President Ford was on abortion, go ahead, but reciting platforms doesn’t change that point.
There is a lot at stake in 2008 and one of the key things at stake is appointing judicially conservative Judges to the Supreme Court who don’t engage in liberal activism. if we ever want to change laws on abortion, our next step is repeal of Roe v Wade. Thompson “gets it”, Romney “gets it”, the rest of the candidates (Rudy excepted) are on board, several contenders have spoken forcefully and well on the issues; the conservative base sure as heck gets it: We have to have a President who nominates and get confirmed solid judicial conservatives if we are ever to get away from our ‘abortion-on-demand’ current situation.
Well, at least you responded, if weakly; and even though it took some prodding.
orig comment: “There is no one, not one single republican, of presidential mettle with the possible exception of Rudy Giuliani, like it or not.”
I am absolutely sure that of the 10 candidates and candidates-in-prep, about .... ALL TEN are more capable of being President than Hillary Clinton. ALL TEN would be better presidents than LBJ, than Carter, than Clinton.
“And Hillary’s status as Victim of Bill and Strong Woman and veteran De Facto President will trump him easily in the public mind.”
— Media misinformation that creates these phony images may prevail. Or it may not. Its up to us to make truth prevail.
“The others, on either side, are just that: side shows. They are not capable of being the president of this country,”
This is not a sensible statement. You know the ‘qualifications’ for president? A) be a 36yearold native-born citizen, and B) WIN THE ELECTION.
The ‘great’ Clinton was an irresponsible 43-year-old whose only accomplishment in life was getting reelected in Arkansas. Qualification? None, except getting elected!
“a time of trepidation if any of them by some unfortunate turn of events manages to get elected to the office.”
If we survived Jimmy Carter we can survive anything.
Romney - fantastic executive skills.
McCain - Been in Washington long time, “knows the ropes”, would have done a better job than GWB in Iraq; we freepers are only down on him because he’s been in DC *too long* and drank the liberal/RINO koolaid.
Guliani - No BS leader.
Thompson - Another no BS leader and conservative to boot, so no heartburn like with Rudy.
“That would be sad indeed, no matter what party he claimed to be affiliated with, because this country is too much to be handled by an amateur. He’ll be eaten alive and run too high a risk of making really dumb decisions out of ignorance of the true political and leadership tradition of the US, and the discretion required to steer this ship in international waters that are filled with sharks and landmines.”
That might be a credible complaint against Obama, but for other candidates, that’s just a lack of perspective. We need to quit getting so down on our own field - they are far better than Hillary and we dont give them enough credit.
Final thought: Hillary is NOT a shoo-in, in part because her own experience and credibility is a lot thinner than those of the Republican opponents. I think it is unwarranted pessimism to assume the GOP candidates are not as up to the job as she would be.
clearly your authority and expertise as presented in this editorial are not to be challenged.
Not necessarily quickly, as this points out, and maybe not every piece of shrapnel at all.
I'll point out to you that the charge implied by your post is not true. However, it does tend to reflect the observations of numerous conservatives that are pleased to find an effective communicator and executive preaching and teaching our principles, however fallibly.
Those who are persecuting Mitt Romney should regroup, perhaps do some sould searching, and find something useful to do.
I aggree totally...that’s what I was trying to tell the poster, I forgot his name...he is really just listening to the bad thoughts in his head and going along with alot of negative junk. He tried to turn it around and siad I was talking like a leftist which is a bunch of manure. Anyways, maybe he will see something very positive with at least Fred Thompson. I believe he will be our man. And JC Watts would be a great vp choice.
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