The Lonely Candidate
Lee on Jan 21 2008 at 12:10 am | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lee's Page, Uncategorized
Byron York has a fairly instructive anecdote from South Carolina on Fred Thompson:
Last night I talked with Cyndi Mosteller, a strong social conservative who headed the Charleston County Republican Party from 2003 to 2007 and who supports McCain. When I asked about Thompson, she said. “He was the most anticipated candidate that I have ever seen. So many people on the ground were ready to run the ball for him, and they showed up in strength, but he didn’t really show up in strength. I think that probably Thompson is more of a private person. I don’t really think he’s cut out for the public run required of public office. I think it’s almost a personality thing; it’s certainly not an ideological thing. It’s like the public energy and the will to run are a little bit lacking there.” Talk to other South Carolina conservatives, no matter who they supported, and you’ll hear similar opinions. Thompson had a huge opportunity here.
(National Review)
The candidate everyone wanted to support, but no one did.
The most troubling thing about the Thompson personality problem is that it would arguably make for a splendid chief executive. We haven’t seen a presidential candidate who is this constitutionally predisposed against the sordid business of retail politics since Dwight Eisenhower. Of course we also haven’t seen someone with as substantial a resume as Ike’s since either. Perhaps our political culture has changed. Or more likely, to have a Thompson or Eisenhower personality on the trail, it helps to have toppled the Nazi Empire.
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I hope he sticks with it for a while. I really do.
It seems like the campaign seasons starts and everyone wants it to be decided already. What about all the later caucuses and primaries? They get stuck with whomever Iowa and South Carolina vote for?
I’d like him stay in as well Sy. Albeit not for idealistic reasons. The thing I worry over most is McCain being pressured into naming Huckabee his vice presidential nominee, to secure the South and the liberation theology vote. Getting that guy and his movement anywhere near the office of the presidency (particularly were it occupied by a very elderly man), is seriously unnerving to me. We need to see Fred getting 10% with Huckabee’s support eroding. If Huck stays in and FDT leaves, he’ll fade. Become a cabinet member at most. The social conservatives are already fuming about being subverted and cheated out of their victory. They’ll demand representation and McCain is perhaps uniquely vulnerable to a soc-con threat of abstention in the general election.