Viceroy of the Common Republican

Posted by: Ion | September 3rd, 2007 · 4:23 PM

(Fred Thompson)

Newsweek’s well-researched Thompson cover story is of considerable interest if you haven’t yet read it. Broadly, it depicts an entirely human face and an extraordinarily reluctant candidate, who has seen enough of Washington to know he shouldn’t be eager for the job he’s pursuing. A commendable attribute if you ask me.

There’s also a significant impression of commonality with the party in Thompson’s membership and views. The Three Amigos are after all newcomers or lost souls. It’s still something of a mystery when Romney became a Republican or even why. Giuliani, the technocratic big city liberal, probably speaks for less than 5% of the party if we were to lay his views out flatly. McCain, despised for his MSM sycophancy and endless betrayals, has long been an exile. Huckabee, the social conservative/economic liberal, is actually a pre-New Left Democrat, who is Republican perhaps only because he’s in Arkansas after Nixon’s Southern Strategy changed the map.

Thompson’s experience by contrast, is far more common and compatible with the typical Republican primary voter’s experience. He has a long biographical history of Republican party allegiance that stretches back to the dark days when it was highly irregular in much of post-New Deal Tennessee. This has a certain credibility and compatibility that lays beneath the surface of things and it’s interesting.

In the story there are also two little anecdotes which stand out.

For most of us outside of Tennessee, Bob Dole’s selection of the freshman Senator Thompson to supply the Republican rejoinder to an economic address by President Clinton in 1994, was our first political introduction. I remember his speech distinctly, so it must have left a bit of an impression. Clinton –ever the sharp eye for political acumen– was apparently similarly charmed:

Perched on the edge of his desk, [Thompson] delivered bromides about tax cuts and small government in a folksy, down-home tone that won him immediate comparisons with Reagan. Tom Shales, The Washington Post’s tough TV critic, called him a “first-class communicator.” Clinton enjoyed Thompson’s sermon so much he sent him a cigar and a letter of praise. “I had to fight with my staff as to whether I should smoke the cigar or keep it as a memento from the President,” Thompson wrote Clinton. “We compromised. I am going to keep the tube it came in.”
(Newsweek via Hennessey’s View)

Then there was this fine little episode from the campaign trail (emphasis mine):

In a GOP field crowded with accomplished strivers who will seemingly do or say anything to get noticed, he has stood out for his practiced indifference to presidential gamesmanship. His reticence may strike his doubters and detractors as a weakness. But for many voters put off by the other candidates, Thompson’s stately but somewhat detached approach to the campaign is reminiscent of another actor turned president. “You’re the next Ronald Reagan!” a man tells Thompson at the fair. Thompson, not quite convincingly, downplays the comparison. “No, no, don’t say that,” he protests. “I have a lot to live up to.”

It’s no wonder other candidates and their oppo-research teams are so eager to marginalize Thompson: Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani would surrender vital organs to be compared with the patron saint of the Republican Party.
(Newsweek via Hennessey’s View)

That’s true enough. It’s also splendidly demonstrative of why they never will be either.

Add us: Digg | Del.icio.us | Technorati

Your comment:

You must be logged in to post a comment.