THE NOTE: Rudy, Mitt Rumble on Fred's Night

October 10, 2007 — -- That wasn't so hard, was it, Fred? Former senator Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., wasn't terrible, and maybe that was all he needed to be to exceed the ridiculously low expectations (and he can thank Dan Bartlett for keeping them low).

But Thompson also didn't seem like he needed to be on stage last night, and that may be a more worrisome sign for him and his supporters. Amid all those optimistic guys, talking up everything and everyone except taxes and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Thompson had a really good podium position to watch what's fast becoming the main event in the GOP nomination fight.

Either Thompson was right to stay away for as long as he did -- since not even a TV star looks larger than life on a stage stuffed with white men -- or he's a bystander in the tussle that's shaping the Republican race for president (for better for worse). Notwithstanding the awakening of his oppo-research team (welcome to the game, guys), Thompson "largely watched from the sidelines as rivals Mitt Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani clashed over who can return the party to its fiscally conservative roots," Michael Finnegan and Janet Hook write in the Los Angeles Times.

The spat between the two blue-state some-time moderates -- Romney, R-Mass., and Giuliani, R-N.Y. -- "spilled from the campaign trail onto the stage, with each accusing the other of failing to keep taxes low and to control spending," Michael Shear and Dan Balz report in The Washington Post. Giuliani won the round: His zinger, "I led. He lagged," beats Romney's "It's baloney." (And Romney -- enjoying home-field advantage in Michigan -- has to know the last thing a Republican wants to hear is that the president is going to check with his lawyers before responding to a nuclear threat.)

"Their increasingly fierce confrontation is starting to dominate the race for their party's nomination," Adam Nagourney and Marc Santora write in The New York Times. Both men offered enough statistics to fill the CNBC ticker, and the battle continued in reporters' e-mail inboxes. "Most of all, they clashed over a line-item veto that Mr. Romney said was essential to reducing spending in Washington and that Mr. Giuliani challenged successfully in the Supreme Court." (And Giuliani was unwavering in defending Joe Torre -- splitting the Yankee-fan vote.)

As for Thompson, he didn't stink, but he didn't dazzle, either. He seemed not to realize that the Michigan economy is in shambles, and that three-second pause early on in a question about whether a recession is coming was about two seconds shy of going from "something's caught in his throat" to "wow, this man is silent on stage." But he recovered, even passing the prime-minister-of-Canada pop quiz, and -- considering that any gaffe could have been fatal -- he seemed to have done his homework.

"In time, Mr. Thompson sounded increasingly practiced and prepared, as if he had pulled a series of all-nighters in preparation for his coming-out role," Mark Leibovich writes in The New York Times. "He exuded a certain joylessness for much of the proceeding, speaking in a solemn monotone and almost never smiling. It was as if he were taking an oral examination, and in a sense he was."

"Thompson's performance slowly ticked upward from its low start, but his answers, while often soothing, rarely moved beyond agreeing with other candidates and endorsing broad principles such as free trade," The Boston Globe's Peter Canellos writes. "Luckily for Thompson, it is still two months before most voters start making up their minds, and he can comfort himself by realizing that his performance yesterday wasn't a disaster -- and, for that matter, that it set low expectations for his future debates."

"At times he seemed more co-star than star, making quips based on the remarks other candidates made," ABC's Jake Tapper reported on "Nightline" last night. "A problem for Fred Thompson is that in many ways he's not just running against candidates like Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain -- he's also in a way running against District Attorney Arthur Branch."

Writes Politico's Roger Simon, "I thought that in his first debate Fred Thompson would come across as either bright or dumb. I forgot about dull." Nobody on stage seemed to find the need to engage Thompson, except for Romney, who delivered his (Doug Gamble?) line as the debate was winding up, saying the debates are like "Law & Order": "huge cast, the series seems to go on forever, and Fred Thompson shows up at the end."

It didn't help Thompson that, just in time for his debut, former Bush adviser Dan Bartlett's assessment of the GOP field became public. Thompson wins the label of Bartlett's "biggest dud." "The biggest liability is whether he had the fire in the belly to run for office and be president," Bartlett said at a recent speech. "So what does he do? He waits four months, fires a bunch of staff . . . [and] comes out with his big campaign launch and gives a very incoherent and not very concise stump speech for why he is running for president. I think he peaked last spring, when he said he was thinking about running."

Other Bartlett highlights: On Romney: "I think the Mormon issue is a real problem in the South, it's a real problem in other parts of the country, but people are not going to say it. . . . What they're going to say is he is a flip flopper." On Giuliani: "best message." On Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: "biggest wild card." And on former governor Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.: "best candidate."

Bartlett was speaking only for himself --