Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

USA Today writer Chuck Raasch has an article out exploring the possibility that Fred Thompson's skills and experience as a peformer may give him an extra advantage in the online political arena.

The crooning over Thompson has infatuated the political media and talking head culture to the point where he will loom larger off stage in Tuesday night's CNN debate in New Hampshire than he might on stage. He's gotten this status through luck, fear and acting skills.

Luck, because of Republicans' consternation about whether any of the announced candidates can stop the Republicans' biggest fear: a second Clinton presidency. Thompson's acting skills have come in handy as he has bantered on the blogosphere, carefully parsed his traditional media appearances (no actor wants to be overexposed), and produced in two hours a video response to filmmaker Michael Moore, the devil incarnate to many Republicans.

Some think the video, which shows a cigar-chomping Thompson criticizing Moore for glossing over Cuba's human rights abuses, could be a prototype of a standard feature of Thompson's campaign. Ronald Reagan had his General Electric Theater. Thompson's might be YouTube Theater.

"Obviously he is center right on his politics, but his tech (quotient) seems to be higher than anyone else's," said Roger L. Simon, CEO and co-founder of the blog site PajamasMedia.com, where Thompson sometimes has posted. "...I know he reads the blogs and he is interested, as opposed to most politicians who feel like they should be interested because it is a quote, 'new thing."'

In a May 18 letter to PajamasMedia.com, Thompson wrote: "Whether or not the Internet can elect any particular candidate in any particular race, it's clear that all of you and our many friends across the blogosphere and on the Web are part of a true information revolution. That's why so much of my effort has been focused on talking to Americans through this medium."

Simon said that while every politician these days has a blog, "it often looks like it was written by six guys and pushed up" the campaign ladder for approval. Thompson, he said, seemed to treat the blogosphere as "a new form of fireside chat. "Writing is a kind of performance, a good writer entertains, and the guy is a pretty good writer," Simon said.

Raasch, referring to THompson's video response to Moore, notes that, "As opposed to other Web appearances so far this presidential cycle - Hillary Rodham Clinton's living room online video chats come to mind - Thompson looked like he actually liked doing it."