Nice guys finish last

This week, Stephen Colbert and Chuck Norris might have pushed the Republican presidential candidate race from being a source of groaning to a source of laughter. But Fred Thompson has managed to rise above such external satire – he makes fun of himself. \nThompson seems like a nice guy, and nice guys have been hard to come by in this race. The power-hungry, big-government politicians have taken over, leaving plenty of room for complaining about the nasty nature of politics in America. \nThompson, then, the less politically refined senator who comes from that medium known as television, which is more comprehensible to us than high-brow political talk shows, should have a space as a candidate of the people. But the people don’t want a candidate of them, and Thompson shows why not.\nHe caught flack this week when he responded to press questioning about why he has not been visiting early voting states as much as other candidates. He shot back that he had “been to Florida three or four times.”\nHe then went on to say, “The mainstream media, with all due respect, likes to concentrate on the process game on a daily basis, and I can’t get caught up in that. I’m going to do it the way I want to do it.”\nMaybe he does know what he’s doing, and maybe before we realize it, he will be pulling off the most brilliant, unorthodox campaign strategy in history. After all, a lot of Americans also hate the mainstream press, and I’m sure many can relate to Thompson’s inability to remember whether he did something that is vital to his career. \nBut the mainstream media, no matter how obnoxious, also controls who does well in a race. Providing them with quotable idiocy, then insulting them, is a quick route to turning your campaign into a joke. \nEven when Thompson isn’t patronizing the media, however, his lack of skill in dealing with them hurts him. \nAfter he first announced his campaign, he received a fair amount of hopeful attention for being a potential outsider-savior to this race. But since he started participating in debates earlier this month, that hope has turned to disappointment. In debates, he constantly stutters, doesn’t maintain eye contact and rambles. \nArguably, Thompson has plenty of time to improve, and the presidential race as it stands now is more about developing the issues than about how well the individual candidates are doing. And when it comes to issues, he has been developing a strong platform, as evidenced by his popularity at the Values Voters Summit last week. \nBut the media may or may not allow him time to get his act together, and if he doesn’t, his chances are shot, no matter how much fresh air he can provide to the stale presidential race.\nAmericans don’t vote for candidates who are down-to-earth, straight-talking nice guys. In media coverage, they come across as limp. Instead, Americans vote for political forces who command their attention – and the adoration of the mainstream media.