Rewarding Good Campaign Behavior
Glewnn Reynolds has an interesting take on Fred Thompson’s campaign.
Thompson is running the kind of campaign — substantive, policy-laden, not based on gimmicks or sound-bites — that pundits and journalists say they want, but he’s getting no credit for it from the people who claim that’s what they want. It’s like in Tootsie when Dustin Hoffman tries doing the things he’s heard women say they want from men, only to discover that they don’t really want those things at all .
He was riffing off of this Samizdata post which makes the point more extensively. Both are correct, the way I see it. Thompson is running precisely the sort of campaign that a whole lot of people have complained that they never see anymore – bereft of clever sound bytes, no attack ads, positive and upbeat with detailed and substantial policy proposals, going directly to the people and generally avoiding the big-market MSM outlets. He’s been sincere about his goals and honest about his ambition. For that, he’s gotten less than nothing. It would have been great for him had the MSM generally ignored him. They haven’t. they’ve done worse. He’s been misquoted and misrepresented by big-market journalists, perhaps acting in a fit of pique for not spending all his time with them, or simply dismissed as “lazy”. Those misrepresentations have been spread around my other supposed professionals who didn’t care to check their facts before running with the story they assume is true anyhow.
Here’s what it really comes down to. Fred Thompson is doing what a whole lot of us have wanted politicians to do for a very long time: step away from the dog and pony shows, meet us as equals, and respect us enough to tell us exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. He ought to get a lot of credit for that. We should be insisting that the other candidates do it, too. Perhaps we can send that message by giving him a few primary wins. Or we could send the message that blow-dried hair, a pretty delivery style, and attack ads that you only kind of “release” (Huckabee, you passive-aggressive ninny) are what we really prefer.
Remember, you encourage the behavior you reinforce.
UPDATE: Michael van der Galien has a great roundup on this story over at PoliGazette and some comments of his own. If you’re not reading him daily, you probably should be. It’s not often you can find really good analysis of American political coming in from across the Atlantic. Surely there’s a publication over there who can benefit from his creativity and intelligence and has a truckload of cash they can back up to his door.
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Category: The 2008 Horse Race
[...] at the Sundries Shack: Here’s what it really comes down to. Fred Thompson is doing what a whole lot of us have wanted [...]
[...] The Sundries Shack: Fred Thompson is doing what a whole lot of us have wanted politicians to do for a very long time: step away from the dog and pony shows, meet us as equals, and respect us enough to tell us exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. He ought to get a lot of credit for that. We should be insisting that the other candidates do it, too. Perhaps we can send that message by giving him a few primary wins. [...]
[...] The Sundries Shack: Fred Thompson is doing what a whole lot of us have wanted politicians to do for a very long time: step away from the dog and pony shows, meet us as equals, and respect us enough to tell us exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. He ought to get a lot of credit for that. We should be insisting that the other candidates do it, too. Perhaps we can send that message by giving him a few primary wins. [...]
[...] Sundries Shack: Here’s what it really comes down to. Fred Thompson is doing what a whole lot of us have wanted politicians to do for a very long time: step away from the dog and pony shows, meet us as equals, and respect us enough to tell us exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. He ought to get a lot of credit for that. We should be insisting that the other candidates do it, too. Perhaps we can send that message by giving him a few primary wins. Or we could send the message that blow-dried hair, a pretty delivery style, and attack ads that you only kind of “release” (Huckabee, you passive-aggressive ninny) are what we really prefer. [...]