Short Attention Span Theater
Maybe my location makes this more of an issue that it appears to a national audience, and I will admit that the once great Tennessean newspaper in Nashville is now little ore than a Gannett sensationalism special, but perhaps debates have begun too soon. It is easy to see that the general public does not have too much interest in the campaigns so far. Debates garner some attention, but campaigns still find it difficult to compete with LaBron James or even the Spelling Bee. With such short attention spans comes the seemingly endless fascination with the "next best thing."
Today's Tennessean tries to encourage a Fred Thompson v. Al Gore race.
Fred Thompson and, to a lesser extent Al Gore, are poised to surge into the race and quickly wedge themselves into the top tier of contenders for 2008.
Their combined buzz is resonating through the nation like a brood of 17-year cicadas -- the ones that will come out across the heartland next year, the year that Americans decide who will replace George W. Bush in the White House.
Is this lead paragraph accurate? Does it reflect any genuine reporting, or does it simply attempt to capitalize on the search for something else?
: 2008 prsidential election, Gore, Thompson, debates
Thompson is running. There is no question about that. This week he incorporated Friends of Thompson and hired a campaign chair. Gore, on the other hand, has show no serious interest even though his refusing to rule out a run has played in the press as a chance that he will eventually jump in. These two, plus Newt Gngrich, have taken coy to a new art form, and they are each playing their non-candidate status to incredible effect in the national press.
The question for the medium term is, will the debates render those who declared early incapable of winning, or will their dedication to the formal process eventually pay off when the last minute campaigners jump in?
Well, their "buzz" is not resonating here today because those candidates who are in the race will square off in face-to-face debating tonight. The Democratic nominee will be on the stage tonight. Gore will not enter this race, and democratic partisans will demand consistent commitment to the process from their nominee. When the Republican candidates debate in two night's time, it will be fair to wonder it their nominee is really on the stage or not. Fred Thompson is striving to ride a movie script to the nomination, but he will have to debate eventually, and by then, all the other candidates will have accumulated incredible experiences in this obviously challenging forum.
