Campaigning Can Be Fun

Mickey Kaus writes:

On Samizdata, Paul Marks offers a fairly common defense of Fred Thompson:

Fred Thompson is in the middle of a 40 town Iowa tour – so he is hardly lazy. And he does go on television shows – thus dealing with critics, such as myself, who attacked him for not going on enough shows. But what sort of person would enjoy all this?

A lunatic.

I dunno. Sounds kinda fun to me! Being rushed from interview to interview, at each of which reporters (who may not know a whole lot less about government than you do) hang on your every nuance, jot down each pensee? Waging an underdog campaign against unfair, flimsy media expectations? Occupying the center of attention wherever you go? Having an eager staff devoted to making you, you, you look good. Sounds like a the world’s greatest book tour, only better. You don’t need an emperor’s ego to enjoy that sort of thing, or even a blogger’s ego. A normal attorney’s or reporter’s or college professor’s ego should do. … There may be reasons why sane people are discouraged from running for president–e.g., fundraising, holding lower office–but the horrible experience of campaigning in Iowa for a month wouldn’t seem to be among them.