Newt and Fred need to cowboy up on these points.
A bunch of white guys simply ain't gonna cut it in the media world where a Woman, A Black and a Metrosexual are the top three possibilities for the Dem nomination--the media SO want to cover those first two as president (and wouldn't mind flirting with the third--the men and the women).
So the Republicans have to do what winning Republicans have always done in the post-Kennedy era--they have to speak so plainly that the American people ignore the media spin and just think for themselves "I just like this guy because what he says makes sense to me."
I think Fred is the perfect man to do this IF he doesn't do a Bob Dole and run a "I want the media to LIKE me" campaign.
I simply don't see any of the other Republicans overcoming this obstacle because they're either too liberal (hate to tell some folks this, but being a liberal doesn't make you a RINO--Nixon and Rockefeller were not conservatives), too unpalatable, or too nuts.
I believe Thompson CAN do this. I am just not sure yet if he WANTS to, but he's smarter about media than most of us here, I'd wager, and he has a long track record.