Thompson Shuns Debate to Reach Masses

Republican Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson has taken some heat from certain GOP activists and voters for his decision to forsake the New Hampshire Republican Debate in order to appear on Jay Leno's Tonight Show on NBC.

But let's face it. Most Americans right now are not at all interested in either the Republican or the Democratic debates.

In fact, recent polls find that a majority of Americans who have watched all or part of some of the debates are growing 'debate weary' already, and we are still over a year away from the election.

By appearing on Leno rather than the N.H. debate, Thompson is set to reach a vast segment of the American populace that is largely turned off by politics and that is clearly undecided about the 2008 Presidential election.

Rather than 'preaching to the choir' by going to New Hampshire to please GOP activists and the small group of viewers who will watch on TV, Thompson instead did the wise thing by going in front of an audience the GOP desperately needs to win if it has any chance of keeping the White House in 2008.

In addition, Thompson will be in friendly territory on Leno. He is a household name and a fixture in the Hollywood culture, and he has many friends in California.

Granted, Thompson may not be the top choice of the majority of the Hollywood set, given their penchant for supporting the most extreme leftist candidates. Yet Hollywood has a way of embracing their own, even if one of their number turns out to be a conservative.

Ronald Reagan was always personally popular in California and even in Hollywood. Yet many in the region opposed his policies.

Like Reagan, Thompson's personality plays well in a setting such as the Burbank, California setting of the Leno show. Of course, he does just as well in blue jeans and a pickup truck traveling the countryside in Tennessee. And it certainly won't hurt that Thompson will be in his element where he feels most comfortable--before a camera, one-on-one.

In New Hampshire he would have had to share the stage and the spotlight with all the other candidates, not that this will not happen eventually anyway.

As a Thompson campaign official stated Tuesday, 'There will be plenty more opportunities to debate with the other candidates and mix it up.' In fact, there will probably be many more opportunities for such things than most Americans care about.

To put it bluntly, the rank-and-file of the Party faithful probably won't begin getting interested in earnest until Jan. 1, 2008 as the primaries get underway. The rest of the country won't start paying attention until September of 2008, with the exception of a brief burst of interest during the Party Conventions in the summer.