Fred Thompson and “Being There”

Ben W . writes:

The July issue of The New Republic has an interesting article on the Fred Thompson phenomenon. I kept asking myself what Thompson reminded me of and finally it occurred to me. The book (or movie) “Being There” by Jerzy Kosinsky. Chauncy Gardiner is a man who utters trivialities that are picked up as significant and wise utterances. He’s never achieved anything in life but the world around him picks up and magnifies his words.

Thompson has that same aura. Americans see in him whatever it is they want to, filtered through the films and television shows he has acted in. In the media, Fred Thompson is what we want a “Fred Thompson” (face and body) to be, so that we can extract him from the artistic stage, put him on the political stage, and have Fred Thompson actor be Fred Thompson president. As he says in the article, “I’ve never really gone after anything—the doors just seemed to open for me.”

LA replies:

May be. But if the choice were between electing Hillary/Obama/Giuliani and electing Thompson, whom would you pick?

Charles G. writes:

I’d pick Obama. The white middle class would finally “feel it,” and his administration would end up being catastrophic for the entire Democratic coalition (creaky as it already is). It would definitely be worth the pain of enduring an Obama administration just for the pleasure of finishing off the Bolsheviks over at the Democratic party.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 04, 2007 01:40 PM | Send