In defending Fred Thompson against the charge of laziness recently, I suggested that there's something absurd about relentlessly high-energy workaholics like Mitt Romney. And I recommended that Thompson note how people also called Ronald Reagan lazy--something that obviously didn't bother Republicans in the end.
And lo, we get this from today's NYT story on Thompson's low-energy campaign:
“Republican voters are going to decide if they want the Energizer Bunny or Richard Simmons, or a consistent conservative,” Mr. Lacy [Thompson's campaign manager] said.... The Thompson campaign, which likes to point to Ronald Reagan as its model, notes that Reagan too was derided by critics as lazy.
Richard Simmons vs. The Gipper? Couldn't have come up with a better way to frame it.
--Michael Crowley