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July 04, 2007 12:15 AM UTC

Would Joe Don Baker Make a Strong Presidential Candidate in the Mountain West?

  • 29 Comments
  • by: davidsirota

(This is a user-created diary. Post your own by creating an account using the menu to the right. – promoted by Colorado Pols)

What fascinates/disturbs me so much about the concept of longtime Washington lobbyist Fred Thompson as a frontrunner for president with cross-regional, “outsider” political appeal is not anything the Tennesssee Republican has said of late, but the incredibly absurd reason the media and political chattering class cite in ordaining Thompson as a Very Serious Candidate.

It’s basically accepted fact that Thompson was an entirely lackluster – and lazy – U.S. senator, and that his current status as a presidential frontrunner really has primarily to do with his side career as a small-time character actor on the TV show Law & Order and in a spate of B Movies, including those memorable gems of cinematic history like Baby’s Day Out and Iron Eagle III. We know Thompson’s acting career is by far the most important factor in his billing as a major frontrunner because if someone of a similarly thin political resume without the Hollywood bit parts floated his name for a run – say, someone like former Republican Senator Lauch Faircloth (NC) or Peter Fitzgerald (IL)  – that person would be utterly ignored by the media and political Establishment.

Now, it’s true – we’ve had an actor president before named Ronald Reagan. But what’s different is that while Reagan was a B movie actor, he was also a LEAD actor. That is, he actually starred in movies, which at the very least explains the fame he used to ascend to the White House. Thompson, by contrast, has never ever been a star in any movie (other than that massive nationwide blockbuster that nobody saw apparently called Last Best Chance). And yet, somehow, this man is now universally billed in the media as a Very Famous Actor. Even if you do count his bit-part appearances on Law & Order, this billing is absolutely inane, to the point where I’ve got to believe his Beltway media billing him as a “well-known actor” accounts far more for his current notoriety than anything he’s ever done in his modest acting career.

Look, I wouldn’t dare argue that people don’t know Fred Thompson’s face from his various uninspiring movie and television cameo appearances. But what I am saying is that there’s something pathologically insane about the media and political elites attempting to ordain a man as a frontrunner for Most Powerful Person on Earth by manufacturing the concept that this man possesses ubiquitous “fame” somehow derived from a mediocre collage of single-epsiode bit parts on shows like Matlock and Roseanne 15 years ago. It’s fine to become President having once appeared on a few installments of Matlock. It’s entirely not fine to become President primarily BECAUSE you appeared on a few installments of Matlock.

The insanity inherent in this makes me wonder really how ridiculous could it all get? There are a lot of actors exactly like Fred Thompson – that crew of middle-aged white men who seem to have been in every single movie you’ve ever seen. People like Maury Chaykin, Joe Don Baker, Lane Smith and Bruce McGill. What’s next? Will one of these fine thespians run for president and enjoy a coronation as a Very Famous Actor and thus Very Serious Candidate for President from the Beltway media and the national Republican Party elite?

Hell, these guys have at least as much on-screen experience in movies about politics as Thompson does, and as we all know, that’s what’s really important. Take the Distinguished Gentleman – the 1992 comedy making fun of corrupt Washington. This movie is a keeper when playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, as it features a virtual cornucopia of these ubiquitous character actors that seem to appear everywhere. Same goes for My Cousin Vinny, a flick which is, at its core, about the breakdown of America’s legal system and whose ensemble again features a strange convergence of Fred Thompson-ish nobodies…and thus potential presidential frontrunners.

I mean come on all you reporters, RNC operatives and Serious Pundits cloistered there in Washington – you’ve gotta start being fair. If Fred Thompson’s breakthrough performance as Bernard Oxbar in Curly Sue qualifies him to become the most powerful person on the Planet Earth, doesn’t Bruce McGill’s similarly stunning performance in Animal House as D-Day put him in contention? Just think about the international diplomatic possibilities of McGill’s ability to play music by flicking his throat – isn’t that exactly what America needs on the world stage right now?

Or what about Joe Don Baker? He’s basically a Fred Thompson lookalike (boy it would be weird, typical of the media and somewhat apocalyptic all at the same time to see Joe Don Baker play Fred Thompson in the inevitable TV mini-series about Fred Thompson’s run for president, likely entitled something like “Lights, Camera, White House”…ahh but we can only dream). Baker is a man who has a breadth of on-the-big-screen military and CIA experience from his appearances in James Bond movies. Just look at that picture of him above – doesn’t that inspire confidence in the face of the terrorists? Baker is also a man who, in Fred Thompson terms, is a Very Famous Actor, having portrayed a corporate lobbyist in Distinguished Gentleman and delivered a spellbinding appearance as a hard-nosed police chief in Fletch. Doesn’t that give him at least as solid credentials for billing as a serious presidential contender as Thompson and his two-minute appearance as the greasy CIA director in No Way Out?

Would Joe Don Baker Run Strongly in the Intermountain West In a Race for President?

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29 thoughts on “Would Joe Don Baker Make a Strong Presidential Candidate in the Mountain West?”

    1. As someone who sees very vew movies and has never seen any of Fred Thompson’s, I needed a well written update.

      While some bloggers and posters on conservative boards are charmed by FDT’s movie career, political analysts know his name recognition is only 50%, and he’s a lousy speaker.

      But, like Reagan and some other presidents, he is a very good writer or his media consultant wife is. His blogs and commentaries on ABC Radio make him look like a true conservative. That his ratings by conservative groups put him to the right of Rick Santorum seals the deal for Repulsive Republican Radicals.

      Thus, it’s not all about movies.

      It’s about politics and who can beat Clinton-Obama and their incredible fundraising machines.

      Some conservatives hope Thompson’s the answer. Others wonder how voters will like his young wife and his lobbyists sons, who seem to benefit from their dad’s access to the powerful.

      (Note that all of the top four or five candidates from both parties have skeletons. The question is, which skeletons will make the best mini series?)

      1. Yes, the point was a bit of satire, which I thought was patently obvious, though it seems at least some commenters don’t have the capacity to follow (or, perhaps, my sense of humor doesn’t translate all that well). Either way, though, I find it helpful to step back and find some levity in politics from time to time, and not take ourselves too seriously 100% of the time…

        2. and we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously.

          Are you now a contibuting editor here or are you just another Californian come to Colorado?

          😉

          1. I post diaries from time to time now that I’ve moved here from Montana. I assume the editor of the site front-paged it, which is his right, considering it is, after all, his site.

            If posting diaries on a site, or Montana, offends you – well, that’s your problem, not mine.

            2. Montana. Sorry, was thinking California.

              I have no problem with you, Montana or your diaries – well, except that last one. Enjoyed the one about politics changing in the West.

              In any case, have a good fourth.

        3. It’s a holiday “weekend” and who doesnt like some fluff to joke about.  After a week of terrorist activity in England, a President who continues to piss off the vast majority of the country and a VP who cant decide his place in the government, I welcome some nice fluff.

          BTW David, nice reference to Lauch Faircloth…I love random names that most people dont recognize 😛

          1. he, Jesse Helms, and Judge David Sentell were responsible for the appointment of Ken Starr as replacement special prosecutor in the Whitewater investigation….and we all know what was uncovered in that investigation!

        4. Seriously (even though we’re not supposed to be serious 100 percent of the time), the diary reminds me of the people who think football stars make great elected officials. Steve L’Argent was elected, Lynn Swann ran, Mike Ditka ran (I think). There are probably others. Anytime somebody mentions John Elway and politics in the same sentence the Rs get all excited and do the wave. Blech! I hate that the masses think celebrity automatically moves an individual into the contender category.

          1. Who has turned out to be a competent politician.

            Interesting question – do the Dems ever go ga-ga over an actor or sports star or is that just a Repub thing? I can’t think of any Dems that fall into this category.

            1. Heath Schuler, Bill Bradley…

              Can’t think of too many more, though.  Heath is the only one of those three that really got his place strictly through previous stardom, though.  Franken and Bradley actually have/had a decent amount of policy backing them up.

            2. ….but then he lost his mind (i.e., the hysterically ranting in ’98 in a radio interview exhorting people to stone Henry Hyde for adultery, not to mention his more recent nasty phone message to his kid).
                Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Warren Beatty and Rob Reiner have at various times been discussed as potential left wing Ronald Reagans. 

  4. Dems talk to each other and conclude that talk radio is silly and that there is no reason for fred thompson to be taken seriously…then having dismissed those little annoyances, they have a coffee and congratulate themselves for being so adroit….

    Meantime…the little people don’t know that they have been so definitely dismissed….and they close down the Senate communication systems with their calls, faxes and emails…and shut out the immigration bill…..and Freddie is climbing in real polls…

    Meantime, back at the ranch…the eco-friendly, organically grown ranch,…the dems are eating cake…and missing the roar of the mob…

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