GOP Masturbatory Fodder
Published by BG on Wednesday, June 06, 2007 at 8:53 AM.The thrall of the drawl - Politico.com
Almost the only thing that distinguishes (Fred Thompson's) Senate record from that of Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) is the sound of the voice votes. "Thompson fervently backed the Iraq war, railed against an expanding federal government, took stands that occasionally annoyed his party and rarely spoke about his views on social issues," The Washington Post reported in early May. Sound familiar? Not to mention that he backed McCain-Feingold -- and McCain for president in 2000.
Today, Thompson has broken sharply with McCain over immigration reform and otherwise shifted right enough to win kudos from conservative columnist Robert Novak, who effused that Thompson's tone, "in a soft Tennessee drawl, is less harsh than that of other Republican candidates -- a real-life version of the avuncular character he plays on TV."
If the South has been overrepresented in the White House lately, claiming three of the last five occupants, one reason is the thrall of the drawl. In the national political arena, no accent telegraphs more information faster than a Southern one. It exudes approachability, an absence of pretense and a penchant for plain talk. It promises funny analogies and anecdotes. No other politician, except maybe one from New Jersey, is quite as capable of winsome jokes at his or her own expense as a Southerner.
I asserted to Luckbox yesterday that a large part of the appeal of Thompson, besides not being one of the current ten candidates causing disenchantment among "the base," is that he "looks presidential." He argued against my point that if Fred Thompson looked and sounded like Ron Paul, there'd be a lot less to get excited about, but his defense was half-hearted at best. Do me a favor though... remember that argument every time you stumble across one of these fluffy bullshit pieces about his IMDB credits, his fucking pickup truck stunt, or the "absence of pretense" in his drawl.
Because, you know, if they can't resurrect Reagan, they can damn sure try to mold another one in his image, right?
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