An e-mail:
We have similar taste… I like Mitt and I’ve liked your writing on him. And I’m also pretty excited about the prospects in Fred Thompson. But I’ve never thought Fred Thompson sounded like Reagan, as people often suggest. He doesn’t. He sounds like Fred Thompson, which is different from Reagan in style, tone and voice (and other forms of rhetoric and communication that I’m no expert in). What they do have in common are two important things: 1) The ability to communicate clearly and 2) The fact that when they speak, what they say makes sense; it resonates with that implicit sense that each of us has inside of right and wrong, of good and bad. You can tell Fred Thompson is speaking the truth when he speaks. And when he’s giving his opinion, you can tell he’s sincere. And so we can’t put it into words, but he reminds us of Reagan. Reagan did the same thing: he communicated clearly and he spoke to that inner sense of good and bad. I like Fred Thompson as much as you do. But, to be honest, Republicans are over-anxious to compare every likable candidate to Reagan. Thompson doesn’t sound like Reagan. But we can be glad that Fred Thompson sounds like Fred Thompson.