2PacksAday wrote:nimh wrote:2PacksAday wrote:I'm an {R} other.....Fred Thompson.
Tell me more? I know very little about him..
Well, he is best known for his acting...a few tv shows and several movies....Oh'god another actor turned politician....nah, he has very little in common with Reagan or Arnold...not a slight at either, but Fred is an educated/intelligent man.
He actually is a lawyer, somehow he got involved in the Watergate hearings {prosecution side} and helped take Nixon down...then he made a name for himself in some high profile cases back home in Tenn.
He's a big guy, 6'6...that's two meters, and just has this hard ass persona that appeals to many of us...I've watched him in a few televised Senate debates....impressive...excellent ass chewer, no matter what side of the isle his chewie is from. Now he may, very well be different "off camera" and it all could be a show, but I really don't think so.
When he is acting, the characters that he tends to play are basically interchangeable, FBI, Judges...government types...and when on a talk show...he is the same guy/character as you see on film. Yeah, kinda like John Wayne, but a better actor and a lot smarter....when Gore was picked for VP, Fred took his seat in the Senate, and then won the seat for a second term....and since then, he has been highly sought after for a white house bid.
I would guess that many of the same people...at least on my side of things, that wished for Powell to make a run, are also Thompson backers. Honestly, I can't recite his stance on issues...no clue...but I do not recall ever being disappointed when something he says or does hits the news.
In the "Is Obama Black Enough" thread, I almost mentioned Fred along with Yaphet Kotto as my dream team whitehouse runners....but I didn't want to sound too kooky. {as in, we should vote in the Professor from Gilligans Island because he was smart...kind of kooky} In the post I'm referring to, it may have seemed like I was just joking...me wanting Yaphet {also an actor} to run for prez....but I was somewhat serious. More for the natural charisma of the man than anything else....Fred and Yaphet are very similar in that sense.
Just a note, Yaphet is also listed as being 6'6....just saw him a few nights ago in "Midnight Run" with Robert De Niro...standing face to face, made Bobby look like a 12 yr old boy.
Thanks for your answer, 2Packs - sorry I didnt come back earlier. Its interesting to hear what kind of considerations bring someone to a preference. Its clear why you like him.
For me, these kinds of answers - like Mysteryman's explanations about why he'd have supported Bayh, for example, too - are fascinating also because they accentuate, to me, how different the American political system is from ours.
It seems to really be much more focused on personality, and much less on, well, politics - issues, someone's political "colour".
And before it looks like I'm reading way too much in one or two persons' posts, it's not just you. Take the article that JPB pasted in after you talked about Fred Thompson. It goes on six long paragraphs, and yet when I finished reading it, I still didnt know anything about Thompson's politics. Beyond that he is a Republican who "stimulate[d] interest [..] among the conservatives who view him as acceptable and among the moderates who point out that he has never been reactionary"- and how vague is that? - zilch.
The whole discourse or frame of reference about what is, or who would make, a good president appears to be focused very differently than ours about our Prime Minister. More about: is he a capable guy? Does he look like he would get a job done - whatever job, really? Apart from specific constituencies (the religious right, the anti-war left, remaining yellow dog Democrats), it's less about: does he think like me? Does he share my convictions?
Sure we have plenty of coverage about the various political leaders' characteristics in Holland too (including, for example, in 2003, Labour Party leader Wouter Bos's "cute ass"), and there is a share of floating voters who let their vote be guided by trust in this or that person. But it's a relatively limited, if increasing, share - and they mostly float between different leftwing parties, or different MOR or rightwing parties - it's an exceptional case that you'll see any significant numbers float from left to right and back purely on whether they like the guy.
As a result, and I'm sure this is partly a cultural difference, any portrait of an upcoming politician equivalent to the Boston Herald piece JPB posted would definitely have more meat to it when it comes to identifying the guy's actual politics.
)Nation
