There was a time over the summer when Fred Thompson looked like he'd enjoy enormous support from the GOP's religious right base. The Dobson crowd had already ruled out McCain and Giuliani, and skepticism over Romney lingered. Thompson would fill the gap left by George Allen, and the theocons would swoon.

And then Thompson announced.

Yesterday's "Values Voter Summit," the year's largest religious right gathering, offered the actor/lobbyist/senator a chance to reconnect with the activists who've been slipping away. How'd he do? I spoke to several people who were on hand for the event, and everyone agreed that they were amazed at how awful he is on the stump.

[Thompson] spoke with his chin often buried in his chest, his voice largely monotone, and he cleared his throat or coughed repeatedly, prompting some to wonder if he might be ill.

"He didn't look good," said Ronald Sell, 63, a musician from New York City.

Mr. Sell said he initially had high hopes for Mr. Thompson but left disappointed and wondering why as an actor, Mr. Thompson did not "at least have his lines memorized."

"If he was the candidate, we'd be in trouble," Mr. Sell said.

As the NYT's Gail Collins put it, "Thompson's tendency to look down and read his remarks provided the audience with some of the most prolonged views of the top of a bald politician's head in recent history. When you feel compelled to use an index card for lines like, 'We must have good laws. We must do our best to stop bad laws,' you have been spending too much of your life filming 30-second bits of dialogue."