Paul Waldman, TomPaine.com, July 10, 2007
“Can you smell the English Leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man’s shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort ofa little bit of cigar smoke? You know, whatever.”
It will not surprise you to learn that the one who spoke those words was Chris Matthews, nor that the mature man about whom he was speaking was the Republican flavor of the month, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson. Matthews’ references to English Leather and Aqua Velva, male grooming products whose status (along with Old Spice) as totemic signifiers of American manhood faded some 30 years ago, could hardly be more apt.
Thompson’s rapid ascent up the polls, before his campaign has officially begun, has been judged a product of the weaknesses of the leading Republican candidates. It’s aided by an admiring press corps, never more enraptured than by a persona carefully crafted and maintained with skill, swooning that he is Reaganesque and looks like a president. Apart from Hillary Clinton, no candidate’s bid hinges so much on the impact of traditional ideas and assumptions about gender.
As Peggy Noonan, able chronicler of the GOP id, put it, Thompson’s campaign is aimed at the major pleasure zones of the Republican brain. Those pleasure zones are activated most surely by someone who challenges nothing they believe, and whose appeal could be easily transplanted back in time to the halcyon days for which they pine. The fact that those days never existed, except on television and in the movies, makes Thompson, the actor, the perfect man to embody their spirit.
If Romney sells himself as the M.B.A. president George W. Bush was supposed to be, efficient and capable, and Giuliani posits that only he can keep the murderous horde of terrorists at bay, the Fred Thompson brand is straight out of 1950s television. This persona, honed in role after role, is tough but fair, firm but caring, wise and strong, the kind of man whose dog brings him his slippers when he walks through the door at the end of the day.
Country singer Lorrie Morgan, one of Thompson’s ex-girlfriends, recently told the Financial Times ,
He’s majestic. He’s a soft, safe place to be and that could be Fred’s ticket. Women love a soft place to lay and a strong pair of hands to hold us.
She also noted that Thompson is “the kind of man little girls dream about marrying, who opens doors for you, lights your cigarettes, helps you on with your coat, buys wonderful gifts. It’s every woman’s fantasy.” And who is it that little girls dream of marrying? Their fathers, of course.