Fred Thompson's will he/is he campaign for president (it began with anticipation he would run, which became surprise he wasn't running harder) has been nothing if not surprising. This weekend was no exception, as the somewhat laid-back candidate got into a spat with USA Today's On Politics blog over whether he was interested in running for president.
Here's a recap: USA Today blogged a news report where Thompson was quoted as telling an Iowa audience "I'm not particularly interested in running for president"; the National Review Online replied with a post accusing USA Today of selectively misquoting him; Thompson then posted on his own blog to insist that while he had no interest in campaigning, he did think he would make a "good president".
Read on ...
Leaving aside questions of whether a candidate should ever be in the position at this stage of having to offer assurances he wants to win, it is an interesting insight into the mind of Fred Thompson. (And suggests the Saturday Night Live sketch where Thompson put his desire to be president on a scale of one to 10 at "about a six" was spot on.)
I'm saying that I have the background, the capability, and the concern to do this and I'm doing it for the right reasons. But I'm not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I'd make a good president.
I remember being stuck in a traffic jam in September and listening to a Thompson rally on C-Span the weekend after he declared where he described returning to politics for the public good.
The same thing struck me then as now, while it may be humble to disavow ambition Thompson must have a pretty high impression of himself to believe the times are calling him. His statement on why he is running even includes the line: "I don't know if they ever asked George Washington a question like this."
So what is his motivation?
