John Kerry–2004 Democratic Candidate for President

On September 2, 2003, in front of the USS Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina, Kerry formally announced his candidacy declaring, “I believe that the courage of Americans can change this country.”

Here’s a little reminder for those on the right, and especially those on the left, who are slamming Fred Thompson for not formally announcing his candidacy: by the “Kerry Standard” of the most recent Presidential campaign, Thompson still has about a month and a half before he needs to announce.

Simply because Hillary Clinton has been running a presidential campaign since January 22, 1997, doesn’t mean that
everybody else needs to do so.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m don’t at all like this move toward near-permanent campaigns. When you have permanent campaigns, that mandates a permanent political class (who else would have the time?) and that doesn’t jibe well with my libertarian leanings. One of the things that attracted me to Thompson in the first place was that he possessed enough confidence in his own leadership to repudiate this notion. I applaud him for that, especially since the only people attacking him for not getting in two years in advance are political enemies and the chatterati of the old and new media, who think everybody should run their lives so that they always have as much as possible to chatter about.

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