There's one candidate who knows how to talk like a man, and that's Fred Thompson. Yeah I know he's an actor but man when he comes with it, he comes with it. I cannot succumb to the fantasy that Thompson would make a fine leader. He's a Senator and I simply don't trust Senators to be executives. With GW Bush's example, I'm inclined not to trust many Governors either, although I expect them to be the best. As for military types, private citizen billionaires and bold independents, the record goes downhill from there.
Michele Martin will be asking questions of Democrats, while questioning the format of the debates. She raises the exact right question from the exact wrong position. I think she's the kettle calling the kettle black. In other words, it is the media which has made all of our candidates behave like game show hosts by putting them in production value nirvana, with all the red white and blue graphics and zillion degree lighting. Only Fred Thompson, that I've seen has managed to YouTube his way directly into my heart, although I gotta admire Bill Richardson's uncanny ability to undo all the glitz around his on screen personna.
Thompson's YouTube drama is a brilliant response to Michael Moore, and he backed it up with a comprehensive and intelligent text.
I also happened to be a fan, by the way, of the talkshow format done by Orlando Jones. In fact, I would have to say, for those of you curious enough to ask, especially armchair psychiatrists who think I've got blackness issues, Orlando Jones is the closest TV personality to mine. You'd still have to mix in a little bit of Lou Gossett Jr, Kadeem Hardison and Wesley Snipes to bake that cake properly, but I digress. (And while I'm digressing, does anybody remember Steve Jones, the second greatest black martial artist star ever?). The point I'm making is that some people are blue-suit on the podium kinds of people, but the President of the United States shouldn't necessarily have to be that kind of person, and I am absolutely flabbergasted by the fact that Hillary Clinton is too dumb and clumsy to fundamentally change the style of debate this season. Then again, looking at her, I understand. She's incapable of doing anything but keeping a straight face. If she had to do what Oprah does, she'd crumble in 30 minutes.
Which goes to the point of the drab and stilted way we have come to experience intelligent exchanges of ideas through television. But think about how quickly we recognize it when we're channel surfing. You will know within a second or less as you are channel-surfing if you are seeing a televangelist, an informercial, a motivational speaker, a standup comic, a reporter on location, or a PBS documentary. It's really that cliche, and the media does absolutely nothing about it.
If I were running for president, I would work it like Charlie Rose, whose style is impeccable. I would have a one hour interview with my own press secretary on 12 issues of national import, and I would fully explain my thinking. I would put them on YouTube and accept every invitation to the MSM debates insisting as I respond that people see the real deal on YouTube.
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