The Presidential 4
By Robert A. Hahn Posted in 2008 — Comments (29) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Saturday marked the opening of the Republican Party of Florida's Presidency 4 event in Orlando, which will conclude Sunday evening with the presidential debate televised on Fox News. Attendees at Presidency 4 are Republican activists from across the state. These are the Party faithful; the folks who attend the meetings, make the phone calls, walk the precincts and ring the doorbells on behalf of the Florida GOP.
Much of the day was devoted to Florida-specific events such as the Governor's Luncheon. Even if you were not able to attend, you can easily imagine the applause as Florida's new Governor professed his devotion to tackling Climate Change and Global Warming. It was explained to me afterwards that this fellow, Charlie Crist, was present at the event because he, like the attendees, is a Republican. His biggest applause line of the afternoon was to mention the name "Jeb Bush."
At 4:00, the top tier GOP presidential candidates participated in a Candidate Rally where they were introduced one by one and allowed to speak for ten to fifteen minutes each. All but Mitt Romney were introduced by erstwhile RNC Chairman Mel Martinez. Romney was introduced by Rep. Connie Mack, the son of long-time Florida Senator Connie Mack III.
First up was Rudy Giuliani. Rudy was animated — some would say ’on fire’ — as he strode across the stage,
a wireless microphone freeing him from the confines of the podium. I'm certain Rudy’s talk was a selection of clippings from his standard
stump speech, but to all appearances Rudy Giuliani spoke extemporaneously for a good twenty minutes, on at least a dozen topics,
sounding knowledgeable and determined on every one, without making even a grammatical error. It was an impressive, professional
performance. Rudy came prepared. Rudy wants the job. Rudy is a serious man.
John McCain prefaced his talk with a short video which reprised his history as a former prisoner of war. Compared to Giuliani, McCain seemed almost subdued as he spoke from the podium on the subjects of national security, spending, and immmigration. On the latter, McCain must have used the phrase "I will secure the borders" a half-dozen times. Many of McCain's lines drew applause; that one did not.
Mitt Romney had no introductory video. He has an introductory wife. This was the second time I'd seen Romney, heard the "wildest dreams" joke, and listened to his wife warm up the crowd by telling us what a good man Mitt is. This was also the second time I tried really hard to like Mitt Romney. I wish I could, because on paper he is a very impressive candidate. But I can't like him. As Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland, "there's no there there." Like Giuliani, Romney seemed to speak extemporaneously. I say "seemed" because one could almost hear the click-click of tape cartridges changing as Romney shifted from one topic to another. Also like Giuliani, Mitt Romney is slick. Rudy's advantage is that he doesn't look slick. Mitt Romney looks slick. For all his accomplishments — and they are many, and impressive — Romney comes off as a performance artist.
Lastly, the highlight of the evening, the man every GOP activist had been waiting to finally see in person: Fred Thompson. Not much can be said about Fred Thompson's appearance here this evening because Fred didn't say much. He spoke for less than four minutes and said nothing. Many were appalled. More were disappointed. Some were even insulted at what was obviously a total lack of preparation to address a large and important state's GOP activists. Many who had sought out "Fred Thompson" signs on the way in, left them in their chairs on the way out. Make no mistake: Fred blew it here tonight. He blew it badly. If he's as ill-prepared for tomorrow night's debate, his campaign will be over by Monday morning.
Have to say, I'm a FredHead, but the guy really needs to get his act together if he even hopes of getting past Iowa.
Iowa is not one of them though.
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and a polished image is indispensable when selling to Wall Street.
Mitt's biggest problem is that he's too Wall Street imagewise, and he needs to turn it off.
Polished? Nope. Too 'fake.'
Not polished? Nope. Too 'lazy.'
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A painful, albeit necessary, discovery.
I don't believe polished is fake. But I'm more used to Wall Street than the average voter, and am familiar enough with Main Street to know it doesn't go down very well.
As for unpolished/lazy, I assume you mean Fred. I think Fred IS polished in the laconic, courtly Southern gentleman way. And I have never bought the lazy thing.
Thompson's not polished enough, and Romney's too polished. Oh well, heh. I can live with it, but it's just going to be frustrating to hear this for a few more months!
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I'm not disputing at all the impressions people may actually get of the candidates. People's gut reactions are what they are, and obviously they play a big role in politics and always have.
But it just seems like we're creating a rather narrow window for our candidates to fit in.
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That some people hear when they listen to Romney speak, like his capstan and pinch roller are loose or something. But what's up with Fred Thompson and his determination to underwhelm? At this point I'd rather vote for a guy who at least has a collection of good tapes over someone who keeps showing up at important events with dead batteries.
What bothers me about Fred Thompson so far is that while everyone is willing to call Romney the "showman" it's actually Fred Thompson who has shown so far that he doesn't like speaking unless the audience is large and the event is important. He does well in nationally-televised debates where he knows tens of millions of people are watching and he puts people to sleep at smaller gatherings. That says to me that his actor's ego is working and that he basically doesn't consider smaller venues to be important.
I'm not sure that's the guy I want to have as President. He almost seems to be saying: "Guys, you got me into this, and I won't embarrass you in front of the national cameras, but I really don't want this job, just between you, me, and the wall."
comes, I think, from his decision not to use a formal speech. He takes notes with him listing the broad themes he wants to address and then tries to talk spontaneously about them. I guess he thinks this gives the audience a more authentic look at him. I know that this seems to work better with stump audiences (although not always), but in front of large formal groups the searching for just the right word or phrase often comes across as lacking focus and energy. I wish he would go to more formal talks, at least in front of large audiences.
I'm sorry but I'm not going to give him the credit when he's unprepared. He's spent the last ten years+ of his life working as an actor in addition to his formal political roles and I'm sure he knows the difference between speaking in front of a large and a small audience. He should be more competent at the latter, but he's apparently not willing to do it. There's something bizarre about that: he should be equally competent at both.
Unless Fred is really trying to tell us something, which is that he's not really that interested in the job. My doubts about Thompson stem from the fact that he was cast for Law and Order while he was also a sitting U.S. Senator. He joined the cast in 2002 while he was still a Senator and frankly I'm not impressed with the man's performance.
Maybe he should stick to acting.
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I'm not bitter, I'm giving criticism of Thompson equal time. I happen to like both Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney -- they're my two favorite candidates, but Fred has been a disappointment to me, especially lately. Objectively he doesn't seem like he's really in this race as his own man. He shows up to speak to Republican activists and he's a big snooze.
I have to say that sometimes I wonder whether or not Thompson is throwing the race to John McCain. I know Mitt Romney isn't.
My guess right now is that John McCain is going to be the Republican nominee. Actually, that's been my guess for more than two years now, and as astonishing as it might have seemed then, it's going to completely blow me away when it happens. But I think Thompson is a big flameout and he's going to help McCain. The anti-Romney contingent is already well-represented here. All of us "know" that he can't get elected because he's a Mormon. And Rudy isn't going to cut it as a Liberal Republican former NYC mayor.
So that leaves John McCain. He's the next Republican Nominee, as much as I hate to say it.
Despite Fred's good showing in his first debate, doubts are returning. We'll see how he does tonight.
He's not running for ambition, like Giuliani and Romney. He wants to be president for the right reason -- he thinks there are serious problems coming and he believes he has the answers. He needs to correct the flaws in his speechmaking abilities. He can certainly do it, I don't think its a hard fix for him, but he has to do it soon, as in now, this week.
That John McCain is going to get his butt handed to him by Hillary Clinton. McCain is the ultimate Washington Insider and fundamentally nobody from either party trusts him: I know I don't. Hillary will triangulate him right out of existence.
That's why I'm telling people right now: look forward to 8 years of Hillary Clinton as the President. It's coming like an out-of-control locomotive. If you put your ear to the track, you can hear it rolling down to kill you.
Thompson's style is more like speechwriting on the fly. He was good at it in the Senate and in his TN campaigns. And he prefers it to reading a prepared speech. The problem is he just isn't good at it right now. I hope it's just rust, but he has no time for a shakedown cruise.
That what seems puzzling is, Fred's also a veteran trial attorney, that's where he really learned public speaking. Of course, a closing argument in a small Tennessee courtroom can be a good place to be unscripted and genuine even at the cost of not delivering a smooth, fill-the-auditorium performance.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
I have sent money once and I want to send more again. But I need to see this guy start takeing some swings when the ball is put over the plate. Last night he had a "give me' and struck ut looking. Com'on Fred! crap or get off the pot.
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
John Paul Jones (letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont,16 Nov.1778)
The last 48 hours have been a nightmare for me. A good speech before a must-have audience that was delivered badly, the straw poll results and subsequent bad publicity, and now this foul-up in Florida. Someone at another site posted that he saw a report that Fred had misunderstood the rally and thought he was "just being asked to say hi." If that's true, the people on his campaign who arranged this should be fired, now. Another option is that maybe Fred has realized that his unscripted speaking style (he doesn't work off of a formal speech -- he talks spontaneously using notes to cover the broader topics he needs to discuss) is not working, at least for large, formal gatherings, and has decide to retool. But, he needed to say SOMETHING of substance.
but I sent an email to his campaign and let them know these exact thoughts. He has the goods. He needs to see that when you have a chance to speak after the 3 of the top 4 contenders do you have to put them away. Make the crowd forget about them other guys. I have a feeling that if he does not step up and get the little things right it will be over.
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
John Paul Jones (letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont,16 Nov.1778)
and I know others have, as well. I hope it takes root. Right now, the lack of good speechmaking is the only thing really holding him back.
mikeleader
Rudy would give the "State of the City" speech in New York's City Hall each January and it was one of amazing feats of mental agility I have ever seen.. He would speak, no notes, no teleprompters, no momentary collection of thoughts .for three, sometimes four solid hours.
He knew the budgets, of every city agency..He described percentages of improvement, minority hirings, statistics on cost savings, ...he knew the annual leave statistics, downtime for each agency, the amount of OTPS (other than personnel services) for every one of the agencies. He gave statistics on air and water cleanliness. He had facts and figures on real estate, tax revenues, decline and rise of the stock market, insurance rates, at least thirty categories measuring crime in the city....It was AWESOME...IT WAS ALSO BORING!
On the stump, he has to harness his prosecutor's ability to club you to death with facts, and instead turn a phrase ala his hero Churchill... or for that matter Fred Thompson
one staying on FL. He will be going to 6 cities after the debate. I will give him a little slack for last night. But not much.
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
John Paul Jones (letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont,16 Nov.1778)
I actually like Romney and generally think it's a good thing that he's polished, but I wonder if one of the reasons he comes off as "slick" is because he's always trying to make sure not to say "I support abortion - oops".