Howard Fineman:

Laconic by nature, and intent on proving his disdain for the mundane exertions of public life, he seemed half-asleep at times. Ambling onto the stage, he spoke in deep, almost mournful tones about terrorism, profligate spending and bureaucracy; about his Tennessee roots and his "core values." Then he ambled to the bus. The message: after the Clintons' personality pyrotechnics and Bush's Armageddon-every-minute thinking, maybe it is time for a grown-up who reads the fine print before he makes a decision. "Fred is comfortable in his own skin," says Haus, who is working for Thompson. Others were left cold. "He didn't excite the crowd," Cutshall complained. For conservative Republicans, however, maybe that is the most potent anti-Clinton pitch of all: hasn't the country had enough excitement for a while?