The Woman Who Molded Fred Thompson
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The Los Angeles Times reports that, the claims of Thompson's campaign website notwithstanding, the teenage Freddie Thompson actually seemed to find nothing more inspiring than the fine frame of yearbook editor Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey.
And he has her to thank for his education, law career, political party and even his more dignified adult first name.
Lindsey was a year older than Thompson, "beautiful and "brainy," and widely considered way out of the unmotivated Thompson's league. But in the summer of 1959 he knocked her up. Her family, a clan of bigwig Republican lawyers and judges who "initially held some of the same doubts about Thompson's work ethic that now shadow his candidacy," held a meeting about whether to block his offer to marry her.
They grudgingly agreed to accept him into the family, and brought 17-year-old Thompson under their wing. Thompson's in-laws taught him ambition, helped pay for his education, hooked him up with jobs in one of the family law practices when he got out of law school. By the time he was 30, he landed the job that made him famous: top Republican counsel to the Senate Watergate committee.
Thompson and Lindsey divorced after three children and 26 years of marriage. Now remarried with two young children, Thompson rarely mentions his ex-wife's family today. Tellingly, the former Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey declined to be interviewed for the article.
Next President Will Likely Be A Lawyer
American voters are weary of the "decider" model of presidential leadership, and who can blame them?
USA Today points out that the 20th-century trend of candidates running on their gubernatorial executive experience, which culminated in the CEO-style candidaacy of President George W. Bush, has yeilded dubious results. Just look at how Mr. Management's administration mismanaged Katrina and Iraq.
So in 2008, voters will most likely return to the grand old American tradition of electing a lawyer to their highest office. The leading three candidates in each party have law degrees, and most have practiced law.
Although a USA Today/Gallup poll last December found that only 18 percent of Americans rate lawyers as high or very high on honesty and ethical standards, attorneys' bad rap is a relatively recent phenomenon. Twenty-five of 43 presidents have had law degrees, but the American Bar Association says the proportion has fallen from 76 percent through the 19th century to 39 percent in the 20th century.
Nevertheless, lawyering experience -- with all its tricky looking at things from many angles and representing unsavory characters -- remains a tough sell to the American electorate, the paper reports.
The Republican "most identified with the law so far," according to USA Today, is Fred Thompson, who officially threw his hat in the ring yesterday. Of course, this is likely less because he is a lawyer than because he played one on TV.
But Thompson does his best to spin his legal experience into something patriotic. On his campaign website, he writes, "As an idealistic teenager, I could think of nothing more inspiring than the notion of representing a just cause against the most powerful forces in the country, including the government."
YouTube Star Fakes It So Real, She Is Beyond Fake
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