I love the title of Frank Newport’s latest Gallup analysis: “Despite Strength in Poll, Fred Thompson’s Image Ill-defined.” It might better have been entitled, “Lack of Defined Image Improves Fred Thompson’s Poll Numbers.” The same can, and has, been said of Barack Obama.
This isn’t to say that Thompson and Obama will necessarily drop off the radar screen once subjected to public scrutiny. Indeed, I find them both bright and likable. But vague voter perceptions based on gravitas on the silver screen or a particularly stirring convention speech may prove ephemeral.
