TV Star is Media Savvy! I'm shocked. Shocked!

Quick blurb that Fred knows how to use multimedia, and will use the net to good effect.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/news-desk/2007/6/15/fred-thompson-goes-multimedia.html

Although calling John McCain's website, a "...“depressing” campaign site for its considerable use of black in its background." is a little harsh. The only black is in the banner, and besides, I'm obviously partial to the seriousness of it all.

Light and airy? Colorful? Nah. We're serious about stuff.

Alpha Male and Earth tones

One of the things that attracts me to Fred, is commentary like this.

His background--in small town America, in the South, in the law, in politics--is something that might convince potential Thompson supporters that (despite years as a TV and movie star) he is just like them. But Thompson evidently believes his experiences so inform his views that his policy advisers have to understand that background in order to understand him.

What a great article by Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard. If you have any inclination to see how sausage is made, check out The Zero-to-60 Thompson Run at http://news.yahoo.com/s/weeklystandard/20070611/cm_weeklystandard/thezeroto60thompsonrun. There's good detail of what makes a campaign.

But most refreshing is the honesty. Fred isn't hiding from his history; he's embracing it. His comments are forthright. It's not spin and it's not a transformation.

It's Fred informing his spinmeisters about where he's from, not the other way 'round.

That's a refreshing alternative to poll driven, media directed campaigns that create all form, and no substance.

Woof, Al Gore. Woof.

Yawn.

There does seem to be a concerted effort to paint Fred as either “lazy,” or a “less than hard worker.” Stories touting that line have appeared in Newsweek, Time, CBS, and US News and World Report to name a few. Of course, it’s been further moved along by the wire services and the web. (Next stop... fact!)

But let’s be fair. In a reasonable answer to previous mention of the subject, Fred responded in 1998 by saying, "I don't like spending 14- and 16-hour days voting on 'sense of the Senate' resolutions on irrelevant matters."

That sits right with me. There is a lot of posturing that leads to nothing, and sixteen hours of doing nothing just creates a really good nothing. I’m reminded of the empty chamber speeches broadcast on C-Span, wherein it’s all fire and brimstone…. to an empty house. A great photo op, to be sure, just not so great for democracy.

And really, it’s not like Congress is getting anything done at all, regardless of the day’s length. I’d take a few hours less if we could solve some of the issues we put them there to solve in the first place.