Thompson, His Health, and the Stump

Steve Benen at TMP looks at what the Times has to say about Fred Thompson's performance at the Value Voters Summit:

[Thompson] spoke with his chin often buried in his chest, his voice largely monotone, and he cleared his throat or coughed repeatedly, prompting some to wonder if he might be ill.

"He didn't look good," said Ronald Sell, 63, a musician from New York City.

And,

Thompson's tendency to look down and read his remarks provided the audience with some of the most prolonged views of the top of a bald politician's head in recent history. When you feel compelled to use an index card for lines like, 'We must have good laws. We must do our best to stop bad laws,' you have been spending too much of your life filming 30-second bits of dialogue.

Except experience as an actor shouldn't be a detriment to connecting with people in public forums. Sell's comment above is closer to the mark: "He didn't look good." I don't think he meant those words this way, but that's frequently a euphemism I use when I could just as well be saying "He looked sickly."

MORE: Michael Crowley's back again today, linking to the same Times article (which I should have read in full) and picking out this line: "But [Thompson] spoke with his chin often buried in his chest, his voice largely monotone, and he cleared his throat or coughed repeatedly, prompting some to wonder if he might be ill." (emphasis added)

EVEN MORE: From Sharon Cobb, a reporter in Nashville:

When I mentioned [Thompson] looked ill a couple of months ago, a few Republicans called me some rather unflattering names. The thing is, now he looks worse.

I saw him last month, and his cheeks were sunken and his skin was gray. It was a social setting, and it would have been totally inappropriate for me to question him at this event. But in person, he looked terrible. (I've known him since the mid 80s and I know what a healthy Fred Thompson looks like)

This was written 5 days ago, before Thompson's address before the Values Voters Summit, and was inspired by Thompson being missing in action last week.

MORE STILL: This isn't health related so much as damning. Soren Dayton sums up the weekend: "Fred Thompson did not have a good weekend. His speech was ok, but in contrast to Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, it wasn’t so impressive. Lots of people were disappointed in hindsight."