Thompson Lackluster But Loved
September 10, 2007 – Fred Thompson on Friday brought his message to voters in western Iowa at a town hall meeting at the Sioux City Convention Center.
Thompson eschewed the podium for this indoor event, much as he did at Thursday night’s energetic outdoor rally in Council Bluffs, where he captured the crowd with down home anecdotes about TV life and growing up in Tennessee, as well as highlights from his stump speech.
But Thomspson didn’t bring that same energy to his performance Friday. Instead, the lack of notes meant lots of rambling and little applause from the standing room-only crowd of about 200. Fred packed 10 minutes of good material into his 20 minute speech, which was somber and had the attentive audience mostly sitting on its hands. He’s not delivering his applause lines, what few there were in the speech. It wasn’t a bad performance, just lackluster yet again; he talks about being a conservative but doesn’t give the conservatives in the audience any passion, fire or punch to get them rocking in the aisles.It didn’t get much better when he opened the floor for questions. On health care, Thompson supports a market-based solution and more individual choice to lower costs – but apart from a moment at the top when he praised the U.S. health care system as the best in the world, he didn’t get any applause.
He also had to answer a question on what society should do about “deviants and homosexuals” – turning the answer into the difference between society and what government’s role should be in general (he said government should treat everyone equally … not sure if that means society should do the opposite by implication). Seemingly confused by wonkish, somewhat lengthy answers and a lack of red meat, the audience provided some of its own – asking Thompson about illegal immigration.
His law and order response (sorry) called for enforcing existing laws, and won over the crowd — though he also said he’s not suggesting we should prosecute illegal immigrants because it would fill up U.S. courtrooms (he’d rather just deport them when they are found).
On energy, he went through a whole answer on reducing our dependence on foreign oil without once mentioning ethanol, Iowa’s pet issue. And on whether he supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in light of an Iowa judge’s recent ruling allowing it in the state, Fred tap danced his way around the issue, suggesting instead a two-part constitutional solution involving one amenment ensuring that no state would be forced to recognize a law from another state and another preventing any gay marriage ruling in any particular state from becoming law without a vote of the state legislature.
Possibly his best moment came as he was addressing the issue of Iran – when his 3-year-old daughter Hayden unexpectedly interrupted by coming on stage and clinging to her 6’5″ father’s leg. Thompson said, “Hi sweetheart! Bless your heart, I’ll be done in a minute. You’re a pretty good Republican, you wanna show them your elephant?” Finally getting the young girl back to her mother backstage, Thompson continued that things are going well for the U.S. in Iraq, and that the military is currently doing things right “from the bottom up” all across the country, and not just in Anbar. That, according to Thompson, has Al Qaeda in Iraq “panicking.”
Any doubts the audience may have had about Thompson’s performance wasn’t reflected in the response after he wrapped up. The crowd rushed Thompson (and to Jeri, dressed conservatively in a dark suit), and the senator, sometimes lazily, shook hands for 20 minutes until the room had all but cleared.
On the way to the next event in Mason City, Thompson stopped off for an “off the record” at Dan’s Drive-In in LeMars, Iowa – the self-proclaimed ice cream capital of the world. But while he shook hands and visited with some of the diners, Fred didn’t indulge in a “Dan’s Dog” or even any ice cream, preferring to eat some Hormel canned chili on his bus beforehand – which his staff refused to let any cameras shoot. Fred declared himself a “chili man,” calling the meal the “brunch of champions.” The newly health-conscious candidate said, “(When) my wife is off the bus, you can have things like canned chili,” he said.
Foxnews.com
