Even though I took a second look at Fred Thompson’s appearance on Jay Leno and his first speeches, and found him to be a different kind of candidate … there’s no teleprompter, he’s less polished and there’s no “sound bite” statements … my friends in the blogosphere are underwhelmed.

Ryan Sager at Latest Politics attended his first event in Iowa on the 6th, and found it pretty tepid. The comments on the blog are the predictable mix of Ron Paul supporters, people decrying the civilian deaths in Iraq, and a post mentioning that he is on the Council for Foreign Relations (gasp). But the blog itself is insightful, and towards the end is some of the content I have heard only from Thompson. I wonder if Ryan will take a second look as well.

National Journal’s Hotline mentioned that the roughly 250 people at the event were swarmed by press, and “the answers that seemed most common among respondents either addressed the candidate’s impressive speaking skills or his initial lack of depth.” That’s a slightly different take than Ryan had, as his blog has some pretty specific points made in the speech.

Jonah Goldberg shares my initial favor of Thompson, along with the same question about viability as a candidate. He notes that Thompson’s “appeal is that he doesn’t say 10 words when eight will do”, and further explains that conservative principles do not need an activist, mile-a-minute President:

Thompson could be different. While all the other candidates have a “can-do” personality, Thompson has a “won’t-do” personality. And that’s something many of us think has long been missing from the White House.

It will be interesting to see if Thompson can break through with his laid back, deliberative style. I certainly don’t sense any kind of “performance” happening when he speaks, and to me at least, its refreshing.

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