Sad AND Reassuring...
So Fred Thompson has cancer, but that cancer has been in remission for some time. The first makes me sad, but the second gives me hope. Jim Geraghty has this to say:
That makes me feel better. The last quote, WAY better.
If a lymphoma diagnosis and treatment didn't interrupt Fred Thompson's "Law & Order" work, it shouldn't interrupt his presidential ambitions, if he has them.
UPDATE: Spoke to Smart Washington Guy, one of my regular folks I talk to. His reaction: "This means he's running. He's being proactive and getting it out there."
That makes me feel better. The last quote, WAY better.
Labels: Fred Dalton Thompson, politics
posted by Benjamin at 2:16 PM
4 Comments:
Rudy and Mccain also have cancers.
Part of this will depend on how the press wants to play it, unfortunately.
With respect to the primaries, given what you've just reminded us about, I don't think it'll make a difference.
And not to be too crass, but imagine a Thompson-Edwards matchup: "Your wife has cancer? Oh yeah? Well I have cancer! Beat that!" Sorta neutralizes the sympathy factor, at least.
Putting your own health on the line for presidential ambitions is certainly more heroic than putting your family's health on the line. At least, if the media played fair, it would be.
I pretty much had the same thought as Geraghty, which I expressed as a comment on your previous post.
Ben: Edwards probably won't be the nominee, but I think her cancer trumps any of the Republican male cancers because: (1) She's female, they're not; (2) She's Democrat, they're Republican; (3) It's *breast* cancer.
Yes, yes, that sounds simplistic and crass, but tell me it isn't true. Especially with regard to 3 (and I know the cancer has spread to her bones, but the media play will be *breast* cancer that has spread): This horrible disease has the best sympathy press in the universe. Though it is dangerous, potentially disfiguring, and affects a woman's sense of self, femininity, etc, there have been tremendous strides in its treatment and there is no shortage of help and sympathy out there for people who have it. On the other hand, I don't see a nation-wide sympathy campaign, complete with ribbons, for people suffering from another horrible, potentially sexually debilitating and disfiguring disease, that currently affects the opposite sex *uniquely*, namely prostate cancer. I'm not whining about this, only pointing out the fact that these are where the sympathies will lie.
See, I told you so, Marty.
And yeah, I don't see any "brown ribbon campaigns" to stamp out prostate cancer. And its rate of incidence is significantly higher than breast cancer, too. Like I said, it would only make a difference it the media played fair. Which we all know they don't.
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