Posted on 10/04/2007 12:05:49 PM PDT by Plutarch
The reviews are in from Iowa, and it isnt pretty.
After taking two weeks off to raise money, Fred Thompson returned to the world of grip-and-grin campaigning this week in Iowa without the big luxury bus but with a rejiggered stump speech that was supposed to focus attention on his common sense conservative values. But Thompsons laid-back style isnt exactly wowing all of the locals and certainly didnt impress the New York Times Adam Nagourney, who offered a scathing review this morning...
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An event on Monday evening at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls promised to be one of the liveliest Thompson rallies yet. Several hundred people packed into a hall, where a local state representative warmed up the crowd by moving himself to tears talking about an injured Iraq war veteran hed met. Country star John Rich of the duo Big & Rich, and a friend of Thompsons, had the crowd stomping and singing along with his hit Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy, and some Johnny Cash covers.
Thompson took the stage to wild applause. Within minutes, however, the crowd had quieted considerably and only broke into applause a few times during the 20-minute speech. Afterwards, Kevin Patterson, a 36-year-old stock broker from Waterloo, said hed made up his mind about who hed likely vote for: Mitt Romney.
I like everything he said
maybe its his presentation. Hes a little laid back for me, Patterson said. Maybe he appeals more to older voters.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
If Thompson's effect upon a previously electrified crowd is as soporofic as this and other accounts describe, he is unlikely to become more talented at this stage in his career, and his performance as a GOP candidate projects to resemble that of Bob Dole.
We needn't take the word of MSM, as we could see from last night's Hannity interview that Thompson could hardly be described as scintillating.
The Rasmussen poll shows Thompson doing quite well, despite Thompson not having had yet much media exposure. It remains to be seen whether additional media exposure will be to Thompson's benefit or detriment.
Who do you support for President?
What do you want?
“certainly didnt impress the New York Times Adam Nagourney”. I am definitely not sold on FT but when this “writer” gets impressed then I know I will never be sold
After the primary elections are over?
Whoever won the Republican nomination.
Forget the bias of people who are reporting. The only question is, did Thompson walk into a crowd of excited people, and turn them into couch potatoes over a period of 20 minutes?
There must be a video of this. Are they lying, or did he “underwhelm” the audience?
BTW, if he did, it’s just one appearance, and maybe he was just tired or something. It’s not the end of the world.
But we shouldn’t debate other people’s opinions of something when there is a FACT that is there to be had, if we just look at the objective evidence.
I’ve watched a few Thompson speeches. Some excite me, some bore me. I’ve watched a few Romney speeches, NONE have bored me yet, most have truly impressed me — not EXCITED me, but impressed me, with the depth of knowledge and the ability to bring it to the conversation.
Nobody is going to accuse Romney of being an empty suit. And nobody on stage with him from the democratic side is going to look like an intellectual.
I thought Thompson did very good on Hannity. I have no idea what you mean by "scintillating". George W Bush won two Presidential elections and the man's never been "scintillating" in his life. As national elections since Kennedy/Nixon have show it's the more "likeable" candidate who usually wins the race and Thompson is off the charts in likeability.
I’m not TOO worried about Fred. Better that he had started stronger, absolutely. But if he’s gotta have a rough patch, better to have it now and to have him LEARN from it. If he doesn’t learn, then we’ll have a problem. We need someone who can whip the smart-talkin’ Rudy and, later, the two-faced Hillary. Fred is clearly a good man; I think he’s just not yet used to appealing to crowds that aren’t already on his side. (He only had to run once for Senate, and that of course was in a relatively conservative state.)
Guess he’s waiting for another bodunk from Arkansas to play bad saxophone on the Tonight Show? “Waeee neeeed a chaaaaeeenge!”
Takes the stage to wild applause! Within minutes, however, the applause becomes ‘smattering’... One old man in the audience seemed to fall asleep...
Not to worry. Fred’s just practicing his mad skillz at using his sleep ray on America’s enemies.
Fear the FRed!!!
Plutarch is the definitive Mittophile.
Depends. The news pages in the WSJ are about as leftwing as many other papers. The editorial pages do tend to be conservative -- but they also try to balance things, and some moonbat stuff gets published even on the op-ed pages.
I think the WSJ is the best paper in the country. But I take even their stuff with a grain of salt.
This article is simply a review on the nyt article and just like the earlier report from cbs is based on the same slanted review.
Perhaps you haven't noticed but the if the WJS is conservative at all its the conservatism of Nelson Rockefeller.
although I believe that the ideas that FT espouses are the “best shot” at uniting many conservative voters ...
I do have strong resevations about his ability to get them across and truly engage mainstream America ...
I am also begining to question his “drive” to become POTUS ...
it has been lacking to say the least...
I was hoping to be more impressed
I’m sorry I missed the Hannity interview. I’d like to judge for myself. Everything I’ve seen of him, including the Tonight Show announcement, I liked.
Everyone in the race has had their share of gaffs, Fred will be no exception. The thread is a little one sided in ecpecting that Fred is the only candidate to go flat from time to time. They all do but the media decides who to spot light when it happens. If flawless campaigning was the criteria for winning elections there certainly would not have been a President GW Bush.
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