Now, it’s perfectly natural to want a charismatic presidential candidate. The trouble is that Republicans seem to have completely lost sight of the difference between the apparent and the real. The reductio ad absurdum of this trend is the burgeoning candidacy of TV star Fred Thompson, who plays the part of a tough prosecutor and alpha male on “Law & Order.”

Robert Novak recently noted, approvingly, that “[s]ophisticated social conservative activists” are flocking to Thompson. “Their appreciation of him,” wrote Novak, “stems not from his eight years as a U.S. senator from Tennessee but his actor’s role as district attorney of Manhattan on Law & Order [bold mine-DL].'” If this is how sophisticated social conservative activists make their political judgments, I’d hate to see the unsophisticated ones. ~Jonathan Chait

That is what has continued to puzzle me about the rise of Giuliani and the would-be rise of Fred Thompson.  Each time someone points out all the obvious flaws with both of them, there will be some pundit ready with the retort: “You underestimate how serious and responsible the voters are.  They have balanced all of the relevant concerns and are choosing the best candidates.”  How has it ever been the measure of sophistication, intelligence or political cunning to rally around a former mayor and an actor who has been out of office for five years as your best hopes for winning a national election?  When Giuliani continued to hold the lead in the polls, a thousand pundits (okay, more like a couple dozen) emerged from the woodwork to declare the “death of the litmus test” and to opine on the sophisticated and debonair savoir-faire of social cons.  “They’re not just a bunch of backwoods yahoos–they can read and everything!” someone might have said. 

Then came along someone whom people had not just seen on TV, but someone whom they had seen playing a role in a television show.  The Republican Party was saved!  At last, we had found an acceptable replacement for a former district attorney–we had a guy who played a district attorney on television!  As I wrote about the rush to Giuliani some months ago:

This is the height of unserious, celebrity-driven voter preferences.  This shows these voters to be not the complex, priority-balancing realists of pundit legend, but easily-led (yes, I really do want to use that word) and gullible people who will chant the name of any politician if they have heard it often enough in a positive context.  God help us, but many of these people may have concluded that Giuliani is their guy simply because they have seen him on TV more often than they have seen the others.  Yes, I do think it is that bad. 

Not only is it that bad, it is now a point of pride with Republicans that they are flocking to Fred Thompson because of his television career.  In New Hampshire, it appears that Romney has temporarily pulled into the lead.  Why?  Probably because he appeared on national television in the debate last week and was declared the effective winner by the chattering classes.  For the majority of people who are not paying attention, it is as if the Oracle has spoken: Romney won the debate, so we must now chase after the latest hot commodity. 

The GOP has become a hostage to its own superficial symbolically-driven electoral appeals.  It has become so addicted to mere symbolism that its members can scarcely see past the hype around telegenic media personalities.  For them, being a telegenic media personality is not just an advantage–it is the candidacy.