As I indicated this morning, I thought it would be more useful to solicit the opinions of on-the-fence Republicans about how Fred Thompson did than just to tell you what I thought. I received a large response - and I am grateful to all of those who took the time to write.

So - here is how the respondents thought Fred did.

A strong majority of responses were generally positive. Those respondents tended to say things like like "solid," "good but can do better," "kept me interested." The most common criticism among those that gave him good marks was that he started out slow - though those people frequently noted that he got better as the night wore on.

This response from Chris O. struck me as an average response:

Overall, I thought Thompson did what he needed to do, which was to look like he belonged on the stage. He didn't blow anybody out of the water, but he looked Presidential, didn't appear nervous, and sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

As with anything of this nature, there was variation around this average. But it was skewed toward the negative. That is, very few people thought that Thompson was a smashing success. And while they were a distinct minority, there were a good number of people who thought Thompson did horribly.

The following email from Cary C. pretty incorporates many of the negative comments I received.

Generally, I was unimpressed with Fred's performance yesterday. I thought he looked old and glum. He did seem to do a little better as the debate went on, but his answers seemed to be pretty generic, even given the limits of these kinds of debates. His potential selling point to me has been that he is a regular conservative that could have a likable public persona similar to Reagan, and who would connect with people on a personal level. I did not see this in the debate. Also, he seemed rather negative and grumpy in his answers, which only compounded his glum looking demeanor.

Michael O. compared Thompson to Larry Johnson: "Thompson looked like he just joined the team after sitting out the preseason. He looked a step slow. He looked only moderately prepared." Again, this is a minority opinion - but it seems to be a minority of some size.

A few miscellaneous notes. This email from Michael D intrigued me.

How did Fred do? I think OK. There were too many "um's" I thought, but the format is something new for the actor who is used to memorizing his lines. What I'm more interested are today's perceptions that I'll see throughout the media. And the first thing I saw when I opened up my Yahoo page this morning, one of the featured articles said "Thompson jokes wins laughs at debate." then the subtitle, "The actor-turned-presidential candidate made a crisp GOP debate debut, avoiding gaffes and poking fun at his competitors." I wasn't expecting something this positive from what I saw, so that's good.

One of my big analytical interest on this blog is the power that media elites exercise, and the limits to that power. This is a good example of the collective power of the punditocracy. People are often as interested in what the elites think as what they themselves think.

This was my favorite comment - from Bill W:

What can be done to get Chris Mathews out of the political debates? He cheapens the discourse with his inanity. His question to Romney about investment banking was beyond stupid - "where does all this money come from - where does it all go?" What a twit!

I love the way Bill chose to frame this question. Something needs to be "done" about Chris Matthews. As Matthews would say: "Ha!" As relates to Fred, many people commented positively on how he responded to Matthews' wiseacre remarks.

Finally - for what it's worth - my opinion. Once again, I thought Duncan Hunter was the big time winner.

Remember of course that this was a non-random sample - and I will say that I received more responses from men than from women. This is not to say that we cannot draw inferences from it - but it is to say that the inference we draw have to be labeled "impressionistic."

Again, thanks to all of those who took the time to write. The response was so great - I think this is something I'll try again in the future.