Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Accen-tchu-ate the negative   [Mark Steyn]

David, re your post on Granite Staters and southern accents, you're right: I remember in 1996 being at a Phil Gramm appearance in NH and thinking, "Excellent chap, talks a lot of sense, make a fine President", etc, and then discovering as we left the room that to most of my neighbors his voice was grating like chalk and they couldn't get past that. (I hasten to add, as a foreigner, that my own accent grates on most of them, too.)

On the other hand, I don't think Fred has an accent problem up here. He has a no-show problem. You can't win the NH primary unless you show up for it. You don't need to win it if you're the establishment candidate with all the money and all the endorsements (like Dole in '96 and Bush in '00). But that's not Fred Thompson, and I don't understand his reluctance to get in the game.

11/20 08:42 AMShare