So Many Reporters, So Few Voters
BAKER, GERARD
So Many Reporters, So Few Voters With Fred Thompson at a typical Iowa campaign event. by Gerard Baker Des Moines If ever you wanted a true-to-life demonstration of the steadily rising tyranny of...
...On the ground in Iowa, where they like to see their candidates up close, Thompson has some work to do...
...There we were, centurions in the ever-expanding legions of the world's chattering armies: reporters, TV pundits, commentators, and bloggers, awaiting the most anticipated event of the Republican presidential campaign so far...
...And there were at least that many media people...
...Some of us counted maybe 200, though many of them looked suspiciously like campaign staff...
...His style is measured, ponderous...
...It was certainly not up to the cleverly choreographed, coast-to-coast media blitz of the night before, when Thompson craftily book-ended the evening's TV, stealing the show in advance of the Fox News candidates' debate in New Hampshire with his inaugural commercial and then announcing his candidacy on The Tonight Show at midnight...
...A strong defense, not always the prettiest sight, is the key, together with a running game that will grind out enough yards to wear down the opposition...
...Rich Galen, the wily Republican consultant who has signed onto the Thompson team, spent a good deal of time Thursday explaining to the large crowd of slightly puzzled reporters that the low-key start was tactical...
...Maybe the Thompson team realizes that a grinding running game only goes so far...
...His best line comes when he enunciates a simple creed that is the essence of conservative belief: "Some things in this changing world don't change...
...But this year, patience will be rewarded, Galen says...
...regular people to talk to who will handily convey the impression of the Real Voter...
...He just seemed to be reading his words, rather than really feeling them...
...editor of the Times of London and a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard...
...Largely thanks to our efforts in the media, curiosity had waned even before the campaign started...
...His diagnosis of the Republican condition is spot on—that after the high point of 1994, the party lost its way and needs to reconnect with first principles of good governance...
...And he may be onto something when he speaks of the need to rebuild national unity and turn away from the lowering partisanship of the last ten years...
...He told me the election was like a football game...
...But this was different...
...His speech dwells on the need to return to common-sense conservative values...
...That theme of unity is plastered onto the campaign vehicles that ferry Thompson to the second event of his young campaign in Council Bluffs...
...In fairness, one suspects that part of the problem with the infant Thompson campaign is that it's been so long in delivery...
...At one point a nice young woman from the AP came up and asked me what I thought of the senator...
...This, I suspect, is purely an expectations-adjustment problem...
...But on this occasion the crush was so frantic that it sometimes looked like three reporters to each Real Voter...
...One grizzled presidential campaign reporter, asked to describe the size of the crowd, muttered simply, "Small...
...Usually at these events, before and after the candidate has done his stuff, each reporter will find two or three Gerard Baker is U.S...
...Thompson's opposition to ethanol subsidies, but professional courtesy got the better of me and I revealed my press badge...
...by Gerard Baker Des Moines If ever you wanted a true-to-life demonstration of the steadily rising tyranny of media hype over real-world substance, you could hardly beat the scene at the Polk County Convention Center last Thursday afternoon...
...Fred Dalton Thompson, lawyer, movie actor, senator, actor again, and now the putative savior of a wounded Republican party, was at long last really, honestly, this-time-it's-actually-happening, no-turning-back, going to launch in person his bid for the party's 2008 presidential nomination...
...Everybody wants to play like Peyton Manning, flashy offense, throwing long-spirals to victory just like George Bush in 2000...
...I briefly considered hiding my notebook and angrily denouncing Mr...
...Given the expectations surrounding Thompson's candidacy, this formal entry into the presidential campaign waters was a disappointing event...
...We're used to seeing the actor-senator in decisive, laconic, fictional form, ordering underlings around at the CIA or in a submarine, or uttering folksy obiter dicta for his team of prosecutors on Law and Order...
...Speechmaking demands different thespian qualities...
...United in Our Core Beliefs," the green and gold buses improbably proclaim, as they whisk the fractious media hordes to the next event—where, by all accounts, Thompson's speech was more focused and energetic...
...Heather Baker (no relation and, as far as I could tell, a Real Voter) told me afterwards, "I didn't see the charisma the way I see it on TV...
...Off the screen, the gruff, no-nonsense southern drawl can come across as rather lugubrious...
...The underwhelming impact of Thursday's launch was compounded by the Thompson campaign style...
...But there is usually some sense of proportion—a rough ratio of ordinary people to media that grounds the occasion in reality...
...It's customary to see media crowds at these kinds of events—the familiar, powder-puffed TV face, the battle-hardened campaign veteran, and the obligatory Japanese television crew...
...It's certainly true that Thompson's substance is better than his campaign style...
...Actual, interested Iowa voters were thin on the ground...
Vol. 13 • September 2007 • No. 1
