My colleague, Professor Schaff, continues to see the collapse of the Thompson campaign as a sign that the ancient virtues of the Republic have all leaked out. I continue to see that event as a sign that Thompson ran a poor campaign. Professor Schaff says this:
The president must have some distance from public opinion while not being immune to it, and a president (or candidate) who power is based solely in public opinion is playing with fire.
Well, that might be true, but let's take a look at the larger picture. Thompson wasn't president. He was a potential candidate for President. No doubt there are many times when a president must take "some distance from public opinion," but during an election is not one of them.
Professor Schaff points out that, until recently, presidential candidates did not personally campaign for office. This is true, but misleading. It was once considered unseemly for a candidate to publicly campaign on his own behalf. But I doubt very much if most candidates spent the time between nomination and election reading Federalist 71. Many (Andrew Jackson comes to mind) worked very hard behind the scenes to organize their coalitions.
If Fred Thompson exemplifies Professor Schaff's ideal candidate, virtuous and occupied with preparing for the job, but largely indifferent to pursuing it, what are we to make of that Hamlet on the Hudson, Rudy Giuliani? It is hard to think of Rudy as possessing some sort of senatorial indifference to public opinion. Rather, he persuaded himself that he could avoid the trenches of the early campaign, and come riding in to seize the day later. Much the same thing was on Thompson's mind. Maybe if you want to run for office you have to run for office.
Giuliani has dropped out and endorsed McCain. I don't think that his endorsement itself makes much difference. I do think that most of the Giuliani vote will in fact go to McCain. A lot of the post-Florida news has left that out. Here is Mickey Kaus
According to the exit poll, even while winning Florida, McCain still lost among Republicans. (Update: Now it shows him tied with Romney.**) I didn't know that was possible in a "closed" primary. Yet it took the 17% percent of voters who identified themselves as "independent" put McCain over the top. ...
We knew that a lot of persons who are registered as independents are really Republicans. Apparently a lot of people who are registered Republican still think they are independents. But I am guessing that almost all of McCain's vote so far has from people who regularly vote for Republicans. McCain's 36/31 win over Romney is plenty good enough, if most of the Giuliani vote now goes his way.
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