One more question:

Why does NPR give so much attention to Fred Thompson? I should ask, so much fawning, lavish attention as to make me have to turn off the damned radio. They have run numerous stories anticipating the exciting announcement that he is going to run! He is going to announce to run! He is going to be announcing in a few weeks!

Thompson seems to garner more of their coverage than any other candidate. And the annoucers are always gushing about his role on 'Law and Order" as if that matters at all. It is nuts.

Meanwhile, someone like John Edwards, who really for real is pursuing this emphasis on the wretched poor of this country, and who is actually trying do something (in addition actually trying to recapitualte the Kennedys, of course) by touring the still-insanely impoverished areas in SW Virignia and Eastern Kentucky, is presented as a poofy fake.

I am no particular fan of Edwards, but he is nowhere near the phony lie that Thompson is. Edwards is busy chasing after political oblivion, but at least he seems to actually believe in it.

Alternatively, Thompson is entirely a fake. He is a nullity. He nods sagely and then gobbles down whatever load the Bush administration is spewing over the American people on an hourly basis.

I am just wondering who really gives a shit about Fred Thompson? Why is the liberla media machine not trying to eviscerate this clown?

It is pretty clear that this is part of the same media machine that helped make Bush into a promising candidate in 2000--lavish puff pieces and fawning interviews = a free ride for the choice of the power structure behind the GOP.

Thompson is even more remarkable for having done shit-all and having stood for shit-all.

The comparison with Reagan is utterly false and misleading, as he had been a political heavyweight for decades, at least in terms of involvement if not actual thought.

But Thompson is an empty shell. The media loves him because he is a celebrity and exudes grativas. Start paying attention to how little he is scrutinized compared to the others.