Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Novel Concept Amongst The Apallingly Superficial

clipped from www.time.com


The single most compelling feature of a Thompson candidacy would be his magnetism. A natural storyteller, he speaks with a relaxed cadence and unhurried confidence, peppering his remarks with language such as "fella" and "bad guys," pausing expertly to make a point, relish an applause line, set up a joke. He is most effective when he makes fun of the superficial glamour of Los Angeles and the tangled hypocrisy of D.C. In a recent appearance, he supplied a cheeky anecdote about a fellow Senator coming up to him after he gave his first speech on the Senate floor, which was on the topic of "having Congress abide by the laws that everybody else had to abide by — a novel concept at the time." His colleague, however, merely wanted to ask him about the submarine from the film The Hunt for Red October.