FRED Thompson had a senior moment at an unfortunate moment – during the very first words he spoke as a presidential debater.
Only a minute or so into his opening answer of yesterday’s Republican debate – Thompson’s first debate since formally entering the race in September – he just stopped speaking.
Froze. Blinked in confusion. Seemed to have lost his train of thought.
It was a discomfiting pause.
And if it had come during prime time during a general-election season, it would have spelled the end of Thompson’s candidacy and ensured a Democratic landslide.
Fortunately for Thompson, it took place a little after 4 p.m. Eastern time on a Tuesday afternoon on a cable channel.
And Thompson did get considerably better as the two-hour debate went along.
But these debates are mostly about the impressions they offer of the candidates, and the impression Thompson offered was: He’s old.
This has nothing to do with his age.
John McCain is six years older than Thompson but with the renewed enthusiasm he’s been showing lately, he looked and sounded five years younger.
And Rudy Giuliani is only two years younger than Thompson, but in offering yet another punchy performance, he seemed as though he were a member of a different, younger generation.
Thompson’s chief problem – the problem that reinforces the impression not that he’s full of enthusiasm at the prospect of leading the country but more that he’s ready for the Earlybird Special – is the world-weary mien he wears as he talks about the problems and difficulties facing the United States.
He’s not the crabby grandfather of the Ross Perot type who harangues you with one of those “in my day we worked for a living” speeches. That role is increasingly being filled by Ron Paul, the anti-war libertarian.
Thompson is more like the impressive and kindly elderly gentleman who’s just seen too much in his life to get all fired up, but when asked he will allow that things are going to hell in a handbasket and there’s not much we can do about it.
His lack of energy was mirrored in the debate as a whole, which was pretty boring save for the first substantive face-to-face dispute during this presidential campaign – when Giuliani and Mitt Romney went at each other on their respective records as mayor of New York and governor of Massachusetts.
Once again, Giuliani was the straw that stirred the drink in this debate.
And he helped close out the two hours with an amused and amusing parry to Maria Bartiromo’s suggestion that London might replace New York as the world’s financial capital.
“No way, no how,” he said. “Aw, come on!”
jpodhoretz@gmail.com