Just got off a bloggers’ interview with Fred Thompson. Others, I am sure, will provide a blow by blow. What struck me was the palpable desire of many questioners for Fred Thompson to do SOMETHING to change the narrative of his campaign. In other words, propose something dramatic, announce a dramatic endorsement, provide a dramatic visual image — just about ANYTHING to garner attention (in his case, a second look) from the voters so they don’t write him off as somebody who already has lost. And what struck me in response was Thompson’s absolute and repeated refusal to do any such thing, as if the very thought of ginning up attention amounts to pandering.

Now there IS something noble, in an odd way, about his refusal to be anybody other than who he is. But it is also true, whether he wants to believe it or not, that drama and visuals can be used to REFLECT and ACCURATELY PORTRAY who one is — that they can show the authentic person to better effect. In other words, not to “fake authenticity,” but to reveal it.

Even Ronald Reagan, as substantive as he was and as “real” and “authentic” as he was, desperately needed Mike Deaver at times. And he was smart enough to welcome Deaver’s help. Thompson’s back is to the wall. Maybe it’s time for him to stop fighting the notion of being “handled” and instead find a Deaver (or listen to a Deaver he already has, because odds are that somebody within his existing organization already has the skill set) who will “handle” him in an authentic, but MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE, way.