Ya Gotta Save It

(First published November 26, 2007)I decided to make this blog entry because I am too chicken to go out in traffic on what has come to be called BLACK FRIDAY. While the seeming rest of the blooming world appears to be in constant motion (at least from where I am sitting), I have decided to make my stand from the desk in my office. Where Christmas shopping is concerned, I am quite simply a class A procrastinator. Its my way of getting ready to do what needs to be done should the plagues of mankind’s past ever return- stay home. I find myself wishing often that they (the powers-that-be) had not opted for that specific name- Black Friday. To me, its just too redolent of other things- like Black Death for instance. Really and truly, I do realize that it is meant to signal the time period when the retail establishment moves into the black. However, with all due deference to the financial destiny of retailers everywhere, I find myself much more concerned with whether my personal financial situation is in the black- rather than the red. If that’s selfish, so be it. This is a particularly worrisome time for the great state of Tennessee of which I am a proud member. This is true on two fronts which I now outline:

1) This has been the week of the college football year when the University of Tennessee Volunteers (hereafter the VOLS) play the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky. This year the game is on the road as the VOLS play in Lexington, KY on Saturday 11-24. Quite frankly, the tension around Knoxville has been so thick this week, you could cut it with a knife. Normally, no one wastes much time worrying about the outcome of the KY game, but this year must be the exception that proves the rule. The winner will win the SEC East title and go as the East representative to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta in early December. I suspect the VOLS will fall asleep for a portion of the game, wake up, realize its Kentucky, then go on to win. I do hope they enjoy the win, because if they think a 3-loss team can win over LSU in the conference championship game, then somebody has found some awfully potent moonshine.

2) Unbeknownst to a great many of my fellow citizens of this state (unfortunately), Tennessee also has an entry in the Presidential contest this time around (2008), and more importantly official voting will start in a little over a month. Former U. S. Senator Fred Dalton Thompson , originally of Lawrenceburg, is our state’s candidate in the running. Lots and lots of people, both in Tennessee and throughout the nation, have a vague sense of familiarity with Fred because of various movie and TV roles (yes, he does have acting skills) his latest in the series “Law and Order”. This is testament to the power of the media in our lives and it also hints at a secret advantage Fred has over most of his competition that has been running for President much longer that he.

Fred’s campaign has been operating very much “under the radar” lately and I think that has been the result of campaign strategy on the part of his staff. Though he opened his active campaigning in early September pretty much at the number 3 position (due to all that name recognition I earlier mentioned), his numbers slumped somewhat as October rolled on by, and it seemed everybody was on his case about not wowing people enough, or not being busy enough, or corking his charisma and all sorts of other such reporter nonsense. The upshot of it all is that the expectations as to Fred’s performance have been lowered to a point that now I feel that a surprise is shaping up- very much like what Lamar Alexander did (by coming in 3rd in Iowa) back in 1996.

While everyone has seemingly been focusing on the supposed front-runners in the Iowa Republican contest- those being Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee- virtually no one has noticed that Fred has sneaked up to the number 3 position. My experience as a campaign worker, and my belief, is that Fred is very well positioned indeed to make a surprise high finish in the Iowa caucus. Very much like Democrat (front runner has-been) Howard Dean in 2004, former MA Governor Mitt Romney has peaked too soon and everyone else in the Republican race is feeding off more and more of his former supporters in the Hawkeye state. I’ve heard that Mitt is a rich guy, so he better get the checkbook ready. If you can buy an election in a small state (like Kennedy’s dad did in 1960 in West Virginia), we are about to find out. Mike Huckabee, former gov of Arkansas (this alone is a lifetime’s worth of achievement) is the latest darling of the media having deadlocked with Romney at least in the polls. Carl Cameron- he of FOX NEWS-can’t seem to quit talking about the guy. There’s just one problem with such a sudden spell of publicity; it greatly raises expectations for future performance. And I do not think Huckabee can meet them. No one votes in the Iowa contest for more than 40 days- and this sort of time period is an eternity in politics. Fred Thompson sits in a very good position in the Iowa contest. He is well -known nationally but very few seem to notice him at this time. I hope Fred can sustain these lower expectations for another one-month-plus. He has numberless qualities about him (no small one being that he is the most electable conservative) that would make him a formidable Republican nominee in 2008. I may be going out on a limb, but I think Fred Thompson will make a superb President. He has common sense ideas, a serious demeanor one would want in a President, and his message calls on all of us to begin to face facts and act responsibly in our national life. He isn’t making promises that would drive the country into bankruptcy- the obvious agenda of the opposing party. I have no doubt that he will be the first President from the great state of Tennessee since Andrew Johnson, and the greatest we have sent since Andrew Jackson (1828-1836). From Old Hickory to New Hickory. Its about time.

GO VOLS!

For The Nonce—–PV