editor, publisher, media critic and journalism teacher,
is a former Chairman of the American Society of Magazine Editors, and author of “Media Power: Who Is Shaping Your Picture of the World?” Before the war in Iraq, he wrote in The New York Times: “I see a generation gap in the debate over going to war in Iraq. Those of us who fought in World War II know there was no instant or easy glory in being part of 'The Greatest Generation,' just as we knew in the 1990s that stock-market booms don’t last forever.
We don’t have all the answers, but we want to spare our children and grandchildren from being slaughtered by politicians with a video-game mentality."
This is not meant to extol geezer wisdom but suggest that, even in our age of 24/7 hot flashes, something can be said for perspective.
The Web is a wide space for spreading news, but it can also be a deep well of collective memory to help us understand today’s world. In olden days, tribes kept village elders around to remind them with which foot to begin the ritual dance. Start the music.
If the unborn can have growing pains, the Washington Postsuggests that the Fred Thompson campaign is suffering, citing fund-raising shortfalls, staff shakeups and, that direst of ills, message atrophy.
"The campaign's been on the vine too long," a Republican strategist is quoted as saying.
All this suggests that the “Waiting for Godot” phase of the Thompson campaign will end sooner rather than later with a formal entrance on the Presidential stage to transform the long-time character actor into a political star.
The burning question for political analysts is whether Thompson’s laid-back style will have enough appeal for the Republican base, which usually favors more fire and brimstone.
His announcement performance may be crucial. Will he evoke Cicero (“How well he speaks”) or Demosthanes (“Let us march”). For a party in search of a hero, that may be the most crucial audition of Thompson’s life.
A rusting red pickup truck is parked in front of the house in Franklin, Tenn. where Fred Thompson’s mother lives. Wearing a plaid shirt, Thompson drove that truck all over the state in 1994 to win a surprise victory that made him a U.S. Senator.
Now he is metaphorically campaigning for the Republican Presidential nomination as the same plain-spoken, honest country boy he persuaded voters he was back then.
While Giuliani is figuratively pictured in a New York taxi, Mitt Romney in a limousine and John McCain in a tank, Thompson will be playing the political outsider driving himself around and talking sense to the American people who are tired of war, deceit and political posturing.
Not much of it, mind you, will be done in the actual truck. On the Web, Thompson sites are proliferating, and cash is flowing not only from “the FredHead people” but big campaign contributors who are defecting from McCain and other declared candidates to join several generations of such Republican stalwarts as Mary Matalin, who worked for Dick Cheney; Lawrence Lindsey, Bush I’s economic adviser; and Jeb Bush’s son.
On YouTube, Thompson zinged Michael Moore with a video from his study, and there is sure to be more of the same kind of no-sweat campaigning that an actor is ideally suited to do.
Fred Thompson is ready to audition for the White House, and there is an audience out there ready to listen. So are the critics, and they will have plenty to say.
