Given rampant liberal media bias, a Republican president must be a great communicator. This is Bush’s great failing, his inability to speak over the heads of the media and straight to Americans.

Guiliani is a good talker. So is Romney. And so is Fred Thompson, who, as Ray Robison observes:

…has ties to Hollywood but is not of Hollywood, which adds legitimacy to his insider knowledge of our media based culture. He is giving voice to that which vexes many of us, that liberal politicians and media elitists increase the risk to this country by downplaying the tyrannical and terrorist enemy in order to win political power. Pointing this out is a talent that has long failed President Bush.

Can anybody imagine President Bush saying what Fred Thompson did a few days ago?

“I listen to the Democratic congressional leaders and I hear them talking about how many (House and Senate) seats they’re going to pick up because of this war…. I listened to one of their presidential candidates talk about that this is a phony war, the war on terror. This is what passes for policy today in the Democratic Party.”

Can anybody imagine President Bush telling Michael Moore so publicly that the political system he admires in Cuba is nothing but a brutal tyranny? Thompson talked about Castro’s abysmal treatment of Cuban journalists, a direct shot at the hypocrisy of the “video-journalist” Moore. The fact that Moore had no memorable response says it all; Thompson scored a direct hit and everybody knew it.

Many of us who loathe Michael Moore cheered silently. Thompson has slyly asserted himself as the easy going but tough guy of the right who also happens to be media savvy, more John Wayne than Reagan. And oddly enough in American politics, it all strikes many of us as genuine

We never hear this type of trench fighting from the Bush administration anymore, unless it is to imply its’ own supporters are haters for wanting to stop an egregiously flawed immigration bill. The same can be said for McCain who used to straight talk us, but for some time has talked only straight to the liberal media talking points in a vain attempt to curry favor. As Fred might say, anyone with two brain cells to rub together would know that the media was going to use and abuse McCain as soon as it got what it wanted from him, an anti-Republican stance.