A number of my favorite bloggers came out in the past few days with posts speculating why Fred Thompson’s campaign has failed to take off as many people had hoped, myself included. Here’s a review, what do you think?
Fred decided very early that he would not play by other people’s rules. More specifically, that he would not play by the nebulous, self-serving rules laid down by the media, the political consultants, and the rest of the Beltway collective. I think he decided he would either win on his own terms, or lose if the whole process is so rotten that you have to be a McCain/Hillary power-lusting type to win it.
I commend that approach. I’m sick of politics as usual. I’m not in line with Fred on every position he takes, but I like most of what I hear, and I really like the fact that he’s not doing the standard Washington two-step to avoid taking a stand on major and divisive issues. I like the fact that he puts out 16 minute videos to explain what he’s thinking instead of just one minute commercials….But no matter what the outcome, someone needs to be in there experimenting with different ways to campaign and lead. We need that. I would commend even a failed effort by Thompson, because others would learn from what he tried that didn’t work. If Thompson falters, perhaps a Tom Coburn will learn from that and come forth in 2012.
Win or lose, I’m happy Fred’s in the race, and the better he does, the better I will like it.
Thompson is a guy who has laid out detailed positions on all sorts of issues. He never gets dinged for misrepresenting facts in debates. And I like the fact that he’s not consumed by ambition. That’s exactly the sort of person we should want as president.
But our moronic news media, which pretends to disdain overambitious candidates and to care about policies — doesn’t really care about substance. For them, it’s all about the horse race, the gimmicks, and the pizzazz. Big Media editors are every bit as superficial as you voters, if not more so.
Thompson is running the kind of campaign — substantive, policy-laden, not based on gimmicks or sound-bites — that pundits and journalists say they want, but he’s getting no credit for it from the people who claim that’s what they want. It’s like in Tootsie when Dustin Hoffman tries doing the things he’s heard women say they want from men, only to discover that they don’t really want those things at all
Paul Marks at Samizdata
What the media, including Fox News (the only non-leftist news station and, therefore, of vital importance in the Republican nomination process), are saying is that Fred Thompson is too sane to be President. It is not enough to produce detailed policies for dealing with the entitlement program Welfare State (a cancer that is destroying the United States and the rest of the Western World), or producing a new optional flat tax (individuals could continue to use the existing system if they wished to) to deal with the nightmare of complexity that the income tax has become.
It is not even enough to have a long record of service, going back to Watergate and taking down a corrupt Governor of Tennessee in the 1970’s. And having one of the most Conservative voting records in the United States Senate – before leaving it in disgust at how the system did not allow real reform.
No – someone has to enjoy the prospect for office for its own sake, not to reduce the size and scope of government and restore a Federal Republic. One must enjoy the whole process of politics – i.e. be crazy. Or one must pretend to enjoy it – i.e. be a liar.