I advanced the theory, several times, here on LST over the last few months that Fred Thompson was entirely too normal to run for the presidency of the United States. I also believe Jeri, his wife, was the one who convinced him to run while it was his stipulation a campaign would be on his own terms. Thompson ended his campaign with a three sentence e-mail to the press.
I do not have any illusions about returning to a more genteel past. I am not nostalgic for some imaginary golden era of civility, but I do appreciate the fact we have created a system of presidential selection to which no normal, totally rational and emotionally healthy person would subject their self.
Thompson didn’t give off the usual political vibe: the gnawing need to please, the craving for the public’s love. A few voters and journalists found this refreshing, many more found it insulting. Some just found it fascinating, in a clinical sort of way: What kind of politician isn’t consumed by politics–and what kind of campaign would such a politician run? Well, now we know. If Thompson could plausibly avoid an overnight campaign trip, he did, preferring to return home to his wife and children in suburban Virginia. He spent an inordinate amount of time with his briefing books. And his response to the chore of raising money–the chief occupation of every office-seeker in this era of campaign finance reform, which was intended to reduce the role of money in politics–seemed nearly pathological. Fundraising events scheduled to last two or three hours often guttered out when the candidate departed after twenty minutes. High-end donors complained of being uncourted, unpampered, unloved–even unphoned. At one party in a private home last year, Thompson made the rounds of money-shakers, delivered brief remarks, and then slipped into a bedroom to watch a basketball game on TV by himself.
Slipped into a bedroom to watch a basketball game by himself ? How could a man like that assume he had what it takes to be President ? The very nerve of such a poseur should shake every citizen’s faith in the system to the bone.
“Should government step in and help Chrysler and the other auto makers?” Thompson: “No.”
Asked about education reform, he said: “It would be easy enough for someone running for president to say: I have a several-point plan to fix our education problem. It’s not going to happen. And it shouldn’t happen from the Oval Office.”
When journalists and candidates, with their typically childlike enthusiasm, suddenly began gumming the word “change” after the Iowa caucuses, Thompson pointed out the obvious: “Change has been part of every election since the dawn of elections, if you weren’t an incumbent.”
He noted how easy it was “to demagogue” the issue of federal spending by dwelling on relatively insignificant earmarks: “All these programs that we talk about in the news every day are a thimbleful in the ocean compared to the entitlement tsunami that’s coming to hit us.”
There was a certain allegiance to dignity and restraint, nods to humility and modesty, among presidential candidates throughout most of our history. Washington mounted up and rode out of the Capitol to return home to his beloved Mount Vernon in the Virginia hills along the Potomac River after two terms. He could have been King. Potential presidents of the past thought it unseemly and of ill-bred appearance to actually impose themselves on the public.
Candidates stayed home, receiving visitors and maintaining a quiet dignity while occasionally uncorking a speech in the neighborhood so the newspapers had something to report. Meanwhile surrogates scattered around the country, leading parades, holding rallies, and telling lies for which the candidates themselves couldn’t be held responsible. Even the appalling Theodore Roosevelt, who would smooch babies at a train wreck if he thought it would get him votes, managed to contain himself and keep off the hustings when he ran for reelection in 1904. Eventually barnstorming became marginally acceptable, but only as the last recourse of candidates who, like Harry Truman in 1948, were so far behind they could risk looking desperate and undignified.
Andrew Ferguson, Senior Editor of The Weekly Standard, is the man I quote here and he wrote as well in this column the following:
My guess is we’ll be missing him dreadfully by spring.
I already do. Read the whole thing.
Filed Under Front Page ·
Comments
32 Responses to “An Existential Maverick”Search
Our Sponsors
Poll
Loading ...LST Book Club
-
Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
by Natan Sharansky -
Fear No Evil
by Natan Sharansky -
The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
by Anatoly Shcharansky -
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul
by Yoram Hazony -
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
by David Brooks -
Snobbery: The American Version
by Joseph Epstein -
A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles
by Thomas Sowell
Oh Texpat the thing I always thought about Thompson was, he wouldn’t play the game. He wasn’t going to pander, or lie, or beg or plead, or promise or buy. He was just going to talk to the people. Unfortunately, in this day of media hype and hollywood, we wanted more.
My guess is we missed a wonderful change to elect a President that didn’t give a rat’s behind if the elite liked him or not. Someone that might actually get something done without all the PC bull excrement.
Texpat you’ve just posted COMPLETELY in words that I could not previously gather why I loved this guy!!!!!!
Come BACK Fred!!!!!!!!!!!!
Write him in in the primary!
My dream team was always some combo of Hunter, Thompson, Tancredo for Pres/VP. Not what we have left to vote for.
I’m glad Thompson dropped out. I would never have voted for him - a self-admitted mole for Nixon during the Senate Watergate hearings who tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In Thompson’s book, “At That Point in Time,” Thompson admitted that he acted with “no authority” in divulging the committee’s knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon’s resignation. And that was only one of many leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for Democrats on the committee.
I also have a problem with how Thompson spear-headed the defense machine for Scooter Libbey and is on record for asking President Bush to pardon Libby, a convicted felon and former Cheney chief-of-staff, in 2007.
As to his unwillingness to “play the game” - what about his idiotic attempt to appear all homey and rural with his little red truck schtick?
Thompson is a backroom wheeler-dealer and a part of the Washington establishment that has gotten this country in the mess it’s in. He should stick to acting.
Plenty to vote against, nothing to vote for. Fred didn’t kiss the hiney. I liked when he wouldn’t raise his hand during the debate when the gorbal warming question was asked.
I’ll vote for McCain only if I have to, not thrilled about Romney either. Only as a place holder to keep Bl-ack-Osama and One That Retains Water out of the same job Reagan, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and the original GW held!
Slipping away from a party to watch TV alone?
Tacky tacky tacky. Guests (and hosts) do not do that.
Carl Cameron of FOX reported last week that Fred’s flirtation with running was a trial balloon for a v.p. run. Fred found out what he wanted to know.
#6 SB
The prosecution of Scooter Libby and the related Valerie Plame circus was a contemptible abuse of power by a federal prosecutor. Any efforts to assist Libby in his defense were perfectly honorable and admirable. I detest the misuse of our courts to personally destroy political opponents and I would defend anyone, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or Independent who was the victim of such legal hackery.
Thanks for the commentary, Texpat, and the link to the article. Well done, and it shows why Fred appeals to ADULTS in the voting populace.
#9 Fontessa
With all due respect, I don’t buy Cameron’s assessment of Thompson. The idea someone would turn their lives upside down and inside out for a year minimum just to test the waters for a VP slot is crazy, especially for a person like Fred Thompson.
It would be interesting to know if he behaved the same way when he ran for senate.
The guy never wanted the job. He entered late and departed early. Stage left. Just like a good actor should.
Permission to revise and extend my remarks for the record:
Cameron did not report this on FOX news. I read the story at “Hot Air.” http://hotair.com/archives/2008/01/22/now-it-can-be-told-carl-cameron-says-he-knew-all-along-that-fred-was-only-it-for-the-vp-nomination/
I personally liked Fred well enough, but I don’t think Fred liked us well enough.
6. SB
Thank God somebody did something to cause Nixon to resign. I liked Nixon then and now, but the summer of 1974 became surreal.
10. Texpat
Ditto
The Wilson/Plames are phonies and manipulators of the first order.
They are very good at it though. Enough to give this trial lawyer a grudging respect (but, hell, I say that aboit Gordon Liddy, too).
shinerblonde
So you are a supporter of who? Possibly the Clinton Machine?
#6 Shiner
I could not have said it better.
Besides that, The man did NOT want to be president. Period! He’ll find a nice sweet job somewhere in the establishment he so wanted to reign in.
DJ - Actually neither did George Washington and I guess he worked out OK. I would really prefer a candidate that is a bit reluctant. I don’t trust anyone who eagerly seeks that kind of power. If they want it that bad, it’s cause they want to use it, generally when they shouldn’t.
BTW, you statement doesn’t make any sense at all - you start the sentence by saying he didn’t want it, and end by saying he did.
FA
A nice sweet job somewhere in the establishment is not president. His job is done. He threw us a bone now chew on it a bit. Yum yum.
He is an actor. He acted like a corpse quite well.
DJ & ShinerBlonde & Fontessa
My post was not just about Fred Thompson, but about the entire process and the history of it. What is expected of someone to become president is nothing short of insane. I don’t have any solutions, but if you read the entire article by Ferguson, you would have seen this:
texpat
I wasnt taking a shot at you.
I believe Thompson did not want it. Thats all. He acts for a living. All he needed to do was act like he wanted it. A little zeal would have done wonders.
BTW…Who cares what Alan Greenspan says?
DJ, thanks
How many men did Andrew Jackson duel and kill on the way to the White House?
These debates, the primaries, and pressing the flesh are a necessary gauntlet allowing the survivors to be a better group from which we choose the leader of the world.
So, what are the chances Fred will vie for a VP spot?
ShinerBlonde, are you new here, or did I miss your comments on Jamie Gorelick and Sandy Berger during the 9/11 Committee hearings?
#22 DJ
I don’t take political discussions personally and, like Fred, the most important things in my life have nothing to do with politics.
The point of the Greenspan quote was not to express admiration for him or his policies, it was simply to point out the absurdity required of candidates and modern presidential campaigns. The fact Greenspan said it was merely incidental. Writers are ethically bound to grant attribution for quotes they use.
If it is your practice to ignore the links and background of a posted story like mine and ignore the entire thrust of the underlying article, that is your choice. If this, or any other thread, just represents one more small forum to hammer the American system and promote your Messianic leader, Ron Paul, forgive me if I am thoroughly and exhaustingly bored to the bone by that whole line.
#23 Nat
I submit any normal person would, and should, be repulsed after enduring the following for 18 or 24 months:
I’ll miss Thompson….. I’d love McCain to try what he did to Romney last night with Thompson. Mitt needs a few years as Thomps. apprentice. As for the breaks he (Thompson)took, I say the President should have many, many breaks… why not start as one intends to go on!………. As for McCain. He gets as upset at truths being told as Clinton. ….. Maybe we should do a match up of the two of them in Las Vegas!?.
texpat, the primary’s and the election cycle are tests of strength, endurance, mental capacity and agility, dominance, and all the other requisites necessary to rule the world. Yes reducing the candidate to some inauthentic autonomic caricature is absurd, however the test is necessary, and much more desirable than say, Putin’s system of choice.
Looking to a positive future gauntlet the Internet, reducing the MSM to bystanders or better yet reporters of fact, we may arrive at a better test.
nz-texan,
The NZD is poised for a breakout run against the dollar.
I don’t want to get you down, but chart setups don’t get much more bullish than this.
Sorry about the thread hijack. Losing money sucks, and the dollar has lost 25% in a little over a year. It’s looking like we could see parity in the very near future. I didn’t know how else to pass the info - fwiw.
#29 Nat
I don’t disagree with most of your points. The one I do disagree with is your assertion it is necessary to reduce candidates to “some inauthentic, autonomic caricature”. The primaries are certainly an endurance test and yet subjecting candidates now to 18-20 months of this treatment guarantees we have a new US President who is completely and totally exhausted and depleted at inauguration. I don’t think there is any wisdom whatsoever in that.
The primary season has to last long enough to expose the strengths and weaknesses of various candidates and yet should not be so long as to exhaust the participants or require the raising of funds beyond what is reasonable. There also exists a point at which the saturation of the public airwaves with political talk becomes a wall of noise. I do hope some alternatives to the present system arise from the evolution of the internet and our mass communications.
…perhaps “a test” would have been a more accurate conveyance of my meaning.
-one must constantly hone the skill, conveying precisely what one means-
The mental and physical test must be extreme.
We are living longer than ever before, Ronald Reagan was our oldest candidate to be elected, now the possibility of electing an even older candidate is before us. We have witnessed the frailties of Alzheimer’s take advantage of President Reagan when he endorsed the Brady Bill and Barry Goldwater when he endorsed Planned Parenthood. We must be secure in the knowledge that our candidates have the strength to carry on and that they retain the wisdom of their years and cannot be beguiled by some foreign siren song.