Fred Thompson Campaign, George Will, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham

SCREENING THEM OUT

If Talk Radio Is Too Tricky, Are You Ready For The Trail?







When a GOP presidential candidate repeatedly finds himself stumped by fairly routine questions from radio talk show hosts, what does that say about his campaign? Is he ready for primetime?

Perhaps the medium has the ability to "screen out" substandard contenders in the same way marginal callers are quickly yanked off the stage during a show.

In this case, it's Fred Thompson who is said to be struggling during talk radio interviews, catching the attention of highly- respected conservative columnist George Will. After months on the trail, even if most were pre- declaration, why isn't Thompson a bit more polished?

In his piece, Will makes a damning comparison between Fred and New Coke:

Fred Thompson's plunge into the presidential pool -- more belly-flop than swan dive -- was the strangest product launch since that of New Coke in 1985. Then the question was: Is this product necessary? A similar question stumped Thompson the day he plunged.

Sean Hannity, who is no Torquemada conducting inquisitions of conservatives, asked Thompson: "When you look at the other current crop of candidates -- Republicans -- where is the distinction between your positions and what you view as theirs?" Thompson replied: "Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't spent a whole lot of time going into the details of their positions."

He also is unfamiliar with the details of his own positions. Consider his confusion the next day when talk radio host Laura Ingraham asked him about something he ardently supported -- the McCain-Feingold expansion of government regulation of political speech. His rambling, incoherent explanation was just clear enough to be alarming about what he believes, misremembers and does not know.

Thompson said he had advocated McCain-Feingold to prevent, among other things, corporations and labor unions from "giving large sums of money to individual politicians." But corporate and union contributions to individual candidates were outlawed in 1907 and 1947, respectively.

Ingraham asked about McCain-Feingold's ban on issue ads that mention a candidate close to an election. He blamed an unidentified "they" who "added on" that provision, which he implied was a hitherto undiscussed surprise.

But surely he knows that bills containing the ban had been introduced in previous sessions of Congress before passage in 2002. [...]

If 2007 really is the year where talk radio has been put in charge of running the country, shouldn't Thompson be better prepared for these basic questions?

Beyond just Fred, however, it's important to extend Will's thought process to the entire field of candidates: what justifies the presence of any of these people in the presidential race?

Here's a question they should all be able to answer: were you to drop out of this race tomorrow, how and why would America be worse off than it is today?


FOR Boston- area talk radio updates, see our other site. New: Belichick now owns the news cycle, at least in New England.

ALSO: SF mayor Gavin Newsom honors cult leader


Or, if you would prefer, please contribute at the Honor System box in the upper right corner. Thanks again!


Technorati tags: talk radio george will laura ingraham sean hannity fred thompson thompson campaign