Tennessee's Towering Favorite Son (Sorry, Al) Has Bipartisan Chops, Folksy Charm
Liz Garrigan
Editor, Nashville Scene
Monday, May 21, 2007
12:00 PM
Nashville Scene Editor Liz Garrigan was online Monday, May 21 at noon ET to examine the qualities that make senator-turned-actor Fred Thompson an appealing -- and potentially winning -- Republican candidate.
The Fred Factor: He Sure Can Act the Part (Post, May 20)
The transcript follows.
Archive: Transcripts of discussions with Outlook article authors
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Washington: What are the chances of an All-Vandy race? Fred Thompson vs. Al Gore? Go Dores!
Liz Garrigan: Slim, I think. While I imagine Gore's ambition hasn't subsided much, I don't think he'll jump in. He's got swimming pools to heat.
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Florida: If nothing else, I admire Fred Thompson's guts. If he makes a run as the conservative choice, he's through in Hollywood. I'm always impressed by an all-or-nothing effort. He's smart to wait out this early part of the campaign. The more the other leading candidates are exposed, the better he'll look -- and the campaign cash will follow.
Liz Garrigan: There's not really a question there, so I'll take this opportunity to make a point that I had to trim from my piece: I've always found in interesting that Gore was rejected by his home state in part because people see him as more inclined to poolside parties with the Hollywood set than to bean suppers in Tennessee. Meanwhile, folks love Fred, who is Hollywood. Again, just testament to the fact that Thompson has something people like.
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Alexandria, Va.: Most of the coverage I read about Fred Thompson is about his mystique and appeal to traditional conservative voters ... but what does that mean in terms of stance on issues? (I haven't seen people elaborate.) Is he radically different from the current Republican throng of candidates in terms of potential policy, or is it mainly the image thing?
Liz Garrigan: I'm not sure I'd characterize him as "radically" different. But what he has going for him with moderate conservatives and independents is that he can't be labeled a GOP stooge. He backed John McCain's campaign finance reform efforts. He targeted his own party when he was investigating campaign finance irregularities from the 1996 election. In that case, he so angered the likes of Trent Lott that the Republicans capped his investigation at a single year, effectively neutering his efforts.
He's pro-gun, pro-life, pro-tax cuts, but when he disagrees with his party, he doesn't hesitate to say so. I think that's part of what makes him attractive.
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Boise, Idaho: Fred Thompson -- or any other speculative candidate -- never again will be as popular as they are before they announce. Given this, and the fact that there isn't a lot of "oxygen left in the tent" (money, organization, etc.) won't he eventually perform at a level below expectations?
Liz Garrigan: That's the $10 million question. I don't know. At this rate, he ought to put off announcing as long as possible.
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Bedford, Ind.: Isn't Senator Thompson losing a lot of time and possible fundraising dollars by not announcing yet? He will have to raise around $2 million dollars per week for the rest of the year to be competitive. What say you?
Liz Garrigan: He goes in with the kind of allure and name recognition the likes of Mitt Romney would have to spend tens of millions to try to get (and probably fail). Beyond that, given the discontent with the current field, I think the money would follow should Thompson decide to run.
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Falls Church, Va.: I recognize that Fred Thompson played a role in Howard Baker's senate tenure, and in the Watergate hearings. He also gained success and notoriety as a prosecutor. However, if he starred in (among many others) "No Way Out," "The Hunt for Red October," "Days of Thunder," "Cape Fear," and "In the Line of Fire" before becoming a U.S. Senator in 1994, can we accurately portray him as a "Senator-Turned-Actor?" I'm sure he'd like "Senator" to come before "actor" as he launches a presidential campaign, but is it accurate for the media to portray him as such, just because his most popular acting role followed his Senate terms?
Liz Garrigan: Fair point. Maybe not.
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Franklin, Occupied Tennessee: Fred has spent very little time in Nashville while you've been at the Scene -- Washington, New York, LA, yes; but he's visited Nashville about as often as the prodigal son. Shucks, on Law & Order, he plays a Georgian who has defected to New York, and refers to a character that is supposed to be a law professor as a "Tennessee weasel." Why do the Republicans in Tennessee love him so? Is it because they're all Yankee colonists?
Liz Garrigan: Oh, I don't know. I think I've spotted him in sweats and a baseball cap at a Ruby Tuesday's.
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Camden, S.C.: Don't you suppose that the fact that Thompson has cancer will ruin his chances for a successful run for the presidency? Isn't the "indolent" part of "indolent lymphoma" too difficult a concept to grasp?
Liz Garrigan: No. I don't think that fact that he has cancer would be held against him at all. I think this health stuff is a media-generated "concern."
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Arlington, Va.: What are Fred's foreign policy positions, particularly Iraq and/or Iran?
Liz Garrigan: He voted for the resolution authorizing the war, then left office shortly thereafter. I've heard him say in recent interviews something on the order that he would be cautious about a hasty withdrawal and would support staying in to finish the job.
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Washington: I personally like Fred Thompson, good actor and good Senator. I remember the slogan when they talked about Ron Reagan -- "why not an actor, we now have a clown in the White House." Seems like it would work for 2008 again. What is Thompson's position on Iraq and the terrible mess of immigration? I would like to see the laws on the books now enforced and the boarder secured.
Liz Garrigan: Part of what I like about Thompson is his stance on immigration. With 12 million illegals here, he doesn't think it's practical to try to sanction them all, send them all home, whatever. Instead, I gather from he's said that he'd rather find a humane way to let them stay here and deal more forcefully with future immigrants. It seems realistic and practical.
(Excuse me a minute. Must change a diaper and quiet an 8-week-old...)
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Columbia, Md.: Hey, what was that knock on Al Gore about heated swimming pools? Are you aware that he buys all of his energy from renewable resources (solar, wind)? Tennessee has had this program in place since 2000. Snarky asides by people in positions of "authority" just serve to perpetuate lies like this. You should be above that.
Liz Garrigan: Snarky asides help to pay my bills. I was just making a joke about his substantial energy use, which was in the news recently. Yes, we all know: he mitigates his "carbon footprint."
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Washington: On the off chance that you might want to at least appear objective: What do you see as Thompson's weaknesses?
Liz Garrigan: Part of what distinguishes alt weeklies from mainstream media is that we don't peddle objectivity (or even think it's possible). We do value fairness and balance but in the context of point of view. But that's another chat.
Thompson's weaknesses are his single Senate term (plus the two years he spent finishing Al Gore's unexpired term), his reputation for being lazy, his two decades of bachelorhood that shouldn't matter but will, a short-term fundraising disadvantage and the inevitable end to the media honeymoon the moment he declares.
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Rochester, Minn.: Other than face recognition and an obvious parallel to another actor, Ronald Reagan, what defining characteristics separate Mr. Thompson from a whole host of other ex-politicians and makes him the putative darling of the Republican right?
Liz Garrigan: I think it's pretty simple: his willingness to say what he thinks. You watch these other guys and you can see the wheels spinning about how they're going to couch this or that question. Maybe he has me snowed, but I don't think Thompson puts his finger in the wind before he responds.
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Maplewood, N.J.: I apologize for the snarky east coast liberal bias: does Fred Thompson believe in evolution?
Liz Garrigan: Jesus, I hope so.
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Nashville, Tenn.: The knock -- even from Thompson's friends -- is that he doesn't have the work ethic for a 40-hour week, much less the hours demanded of a president. Is he simply trying to create buzz to further his acting career?
Liz Garrigan: No, I don't think so. He probably would joke that he's too lazy to go through all this to create a buzz.
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West Hills, Calif.: No bald man has been elected President since the TV age began, unless you count Ike, over 50 years ago. What makes you think he can be? Also, governors become presidents, not senators; do you think "TV star" trumps all this?
Liz Garrigan: He may be bald, but he's tall. That's what Arthur Branch would call "a mitigating factor."
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Houston: Do people really support a "Fred Thompson" candidacy, or would most of them actually be voting for DA Arthur Branch? I mean, really. Do people really have an idea about what, substantively, he stands for?
Liz Garrigan: This is part of the Thompson phenomenon. I was sitting on my deck yesterday with a friend of mine who's a lifelong Democrat and crunchy environmentalist. He was saying he likes Thompson despite the fact that his voting record is not particularly environmentally friendly (oil drilling in Alaska, for example). "He just doesn't get it," he said. In the next breath, though, he said he liked Thompson anyway. He won't be the candidate for many one-issue voters, but there's something to be said for that elusive endearing quality that Thompson seems to have.
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Princeton, N.J.: Come on Liz, certainly a weakness of ol' Fred is his basic philosophy, which won't play well in Princeton. Of course, it may be his strength in Peoria or Nashville, but it's not clear that the country isn't gettin' significantly bluer after seven years of blood red.
Liz Garrigan: I was just in Princeton. The azaleas are beautiful. As you say, what Princeton rejects others embrace.
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Washington: Thanks for the answer on Thompson's weaknesses. I would add one more: his long career as a lobbyist, which I think is a first for a top-rank presidential hopeful.
Liz Garrigan: Good point. He was even briefly a registered foreign agent for Haiti, I believe.
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Illinois: Will the religious right embrace a former Washington playboy who married a busty blonde 25 years his junior?
Liz Garrigan: Well, unlike much of the rest of the GOP field, he was at least single when he took up with a busty tootsie his junior.
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Atlanta: Where is the international gravitas needed for this job? Clearly the current occupant of the White House doesn't have it. What makes you think Fred Thompson has it?
Liz Garrigan: I'm not sure he does have it. What I tried to communicate in the piece, though, is what I think he does have: incredible likeability and bipartisanship.
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Tennesseans Rejecting Gore: It's because although Gore's family was from Tennessee, he's so shamelessly transparent that he never seemed "of" Tennessee. Gore is more of a political creation than a real person, and whatever Fred Thompson has, it feels authentic. Paul Harvey doesn't let just anyone sit in for him, you know?
Liz Garrigan: Accurate and truer.
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Liz Garrigan: It was fun, folks. Thanks for having me.
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