On Sen. Thompson’s not-so-fashionably late campaign announcement
I’m a big fan of “Law & Order” I’ve watched it for years, and by now I think I’ve seen almost every episode. From 2002 to 2007, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson played the role of New York City District Attorney Arthur Branch. In the series, Branch was a no-nonsense, straight talking, dynamic prosecutor who was totally committed to doing his job.
Sen. Thompson is running a presidential campaign based on his conservative positions on social issues and the national attention he has received from starring on “Law & Order.” He would like voters to believe that he would lead our country the same way Arthur Branch lead the D.A.’s office in New York City for five seasons. Yet, in real life, Fred Thompson is much different than Arthur Branch.
This year, Sen. Thompson is running one of the most ineffective and disorganized presidential campaigns in recent memory. Instead of showing the strength and leadership required to hold our nation’s highest office, he has shown arrogance, naivety and flat out laziness.
I’m not the first one to be disturbed by Sen. Thompson’s lethargy. Over the years, he has earned a reputation of laziness among his colleagues in Washington. While in the Senate, Thompson was known to keep a light schedule and regularly skipped late night debates. He introduced only 90 bills during in his eight years in office, with only four of those becoming laws. Recently Michael Luo, a New York Times blogger, compared Sen. Thompson’s time in office with that of Arizona senator and presidential nominee John McCain.
Luo found that in terms of all bills, amendments and resolutions that both men have sponsored between 1995 and 2002 McCain made 840 total motions compared to Thompson’s 167. From this information, if legislative work was based solely on motions made on the Senate floor, it could be said that Sen. McCain was roughly five times as productive as Sen. Thompson during Thompson’s seven years in the Senate.
As Thompson sat on the sidelines this summer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani established himself as the national frontrunner, John McCain’s campaign re-established itself after being left for dead in late spring, Mitt Romney spent millions buying himself the lead in the critically important states of Iowa and New Hampshire, and Mike Huckabee emerged as a popular conservative alternative who will be a factor in Iowa and the Southern primaries.
Thompson’s entry into the field in the spring or early summer could have squeezed out all of the other social conservatives and ended the Romney campaign, since most Republican voters are skeptical of Romney’s authenticity as a true conservative. A Romney exit would then have set up a three man race between Thompson, Giuliani and McCain.
Thompson’s entry into the race was just as puzzling as his decision to wait all summer to get in. On Sept. 4, while the Republican candidates debated in New Hampshire, Thompson announced his candidacy from the safety of Jay Leno’s couch in Burbank, Calif., free from any tough questions or negative publicity. This was a bonehead move because if he participated in the debate, he could have seized the spotlight and giving him a lot of momentum for his campaign.
Since the beginning of summer, Thompson’s campaign has been plagued by a comedy of errors that are leaving even his supporters wondering if he really cares about winning the presidency or not. His campaign has been such a mess that he is now on his third campaign manager and his third communications director.
On a recent trip to Florida, Thompson was asked his position on a National Catastrophe Relief Fund that would provide financial aid to homeowners who lose everything in the event of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane. Thompson replied that he “didn’t know enough about it.” He also said the same about the Terri Schiavo case and about drilling for oil in the Everglades. For all the time he spent not campaigning, one would think that he would at least read a newspaper or something.
As sad as it is, Thompson has been this way his entire life. Thompson has a quote beside his senior portrait in his high school yearbook that reads “the lazier a man is, the more he plans to do tomorrow.” How very true.
Tony Spadaccia is a freshman political science and business management major.
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