I first caught this over at As Seen In WI. It’s a video of former Wisconsin governor and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Apparently, yesterday was Tommy’s birthday and they ran this video in tribute to him.

It’s a video of Thompson at Lambeau Field for something called Return to Titletown II. Having been to the Return to Titletown celebration after the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl in 1997, I can only assume this celebration was held after the Packers lost the Super Bowl in 1998. Man, I was hungover that day.

Anyway, my point.

At one time, Thompson, a star in the GOP for several years, had presidential aspirations. He threw his name in the ring in 2008, but dropped out very early in the race after it became clear his bid wasn’t going anywhere.

This may be why. Tommy Thompson – not much of an orator.

There are the pauses for applause, which are, let’s face it – annoyingly obvious.

There’s the bumbling of words like organ-n-n-ization.

There are idiotic quotes like “this is America’s team, and America’s state!” I mean, hell, I thought all of them belonged to America.

In Thompson’s last hurrah on the stage, he dedicates a day to Packers fans, and sounds verifiably drunk while he’s doing it.

Who knows what was going on. Maybe Thompson was drunk. Maybe it was so cold his balls were frozen to his leg. I know some people voted for and elected a guy named GW Bush, who was also a pretty poor speaker, but even he was better than Thompson was here.

That’s not to mention that Thompson tried to run in 2008.

Can you imagine the GOP trotting him out to speak next to Barrack Obama? Whatever your politics are (and no, I don’t care to discuss them), I think you can agree that would have been a disaster.

Anyway, happy belated Tommy and Go Pack!

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