I’ve been trying to wrap my head around why one-of-these-days presidential candidate Fred Thompson makes an appealing candidate. So far, the reasons I’ve heard are a little thin.
In May, Rep. Zack Wamp (R-Tenn.) said Thompson is qualified for the presidency because he’s tall: “We need a president of the United States after the 2008 election who will rise above the partisan challenges … That person is 6 foot 6. He has a commanding voice. He has a commanding presence. He makes people feel secure. He makes us feel confident.”
A month later, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews got a little creepy in praising Thompson, complimenting the former senator’s odor: “Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man’s shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of — a little bit of cigar smoke?”
TAP’s Garance Franke-Ruta spoke to a “leading figure in the Iowa Republican Party” about the actor-lobbyist-senator, who explained why so many conservatives are excited about a Thompson campaign.
“Can you imagine what debates are going to be like with great big Andrew Jackson-looking Fred and Hillary on her stubby little legs, stamping her feet?” Thompson, if elected, would be the tallest president ever. Republicans are not just looking for the usual John Wayne-type signifiers as they go about selecting a candidate, but thinking about who can best loom over Hillary Clinton and make her look like a shrill, small, silly little woman. Thompson’s booming voice will make her “sound like Madame Defarge.”
In other words, the GOP wants a big guy. Not in terms of stature or intellect, but in physical size. (For what it’s worth, like Kevin, I think Hillary would humiliate Thompson in a debate).
It’s discouraging enough when campaigns descent into personality contests, but rank-and-file Republicans apparently are looking at this race as a contest to pick the captain of a basketball team.
On the other hand, Thompson may yet give his fans pause. He spoke with the WaPo’s David Broder about his ideas for the race and made some unexpected comments.
[Thompson] says he thinks the public is looking for a different kind of leadership. “I think a president could go to the American people and say, ‘Here’s what we need to be doing. And I’m willing to go halfway. Now you have to make them [the opposition] go halfway.’ “
Now, as a rule, Republican primary voters don’t care for this kind of talk. Dems are supposed to be beaten into submission; Republican presidents aren’t supposed to be “willing to go halfway.”
Then there was this:
“Nobody in Congress or on either side in the presidential race wants to deal with [long-term budget projections],” Thompson said. “So we just rock along and try to maintain the status quo. Republicans say keep the tax cuts; Democrats say keep the entitlements. And we become a less unified country in the process, with a tax code that has become an unholy mess, and all we do is tinker around the edges.”
Now, Broder didn’t go into a lot of detail, and I suspect Thompson didn’t delve too deeply into his thoughts, but it sounds like a campaign platform predicated in part on the idea of cutting Medicare benefits and raising taxes.
I’m starting to think being tall may not get Thompson very far.