Dude! Don't get mad at me! The man actually said "I'm not particularly interested in running for president.
The question is: are you in denial or trying to rewrite history?
Your quote does not match your original claim. You are the one lying about history.
The question is: are you in denial or trying to rewrite history?
And how does that quote support your original claim that he's not interested in being president? (Hint: it doesn't.)
You're cherry-picking as much as the MSM is.
The man actually said a lot more which explained his position. This was part of very candid and in depth answer to question Fred wanted to adequately address. Taking words out of context is intellectually dishonest and the specialty of the liberal media. Perhaps you don't know what he really said, but it was widely discussed here.
..........................
Q: My only problem with you and why I havent thrown all my support behind you is that I dont know if you have the desire to be President. If I caucus for you next week, are you still going to be there two months from now?
In the first place I got in the race about the time people normally get into it historically. The fact of the matter is that others started the process a lot earlier this time than they normally do. I think it was for some of them when they were juniors in high school.
APPLAUSE
That is a very good question, not because its difficult to answer, because, but Im gonna answer it in a little different way than what you might expect.
In the first place, I wouldnt be here if I didnt. I wouldnt be doing this if i didnt. I grew up very modest circumstances. I left government, I and my family have made sacrifices for me to be sitting here today. I havent had any income for a long time because Im doing this. I figure that to be clean youve got to cut everything off. And I was doing speaking engagements and I had a contract to do a tv show, I had a contract with abc radio like I was talking about earlier and so forth. I guess a man would have to be a total fool to do all those things and to be leaving his family which is not a joyful thing at all if he didnt want to do it.
But I am not consumed by personal ambition. I will not be devastated if I dont do it. I want the people to have the best president that they can have.
When this talk first started, it didnt originate with me. There were a lot of people around the country both directly and through polls, liked the idea of me stepping up. And of course, you always look better at a distance, I guess.
But most of those people are still there and think its a good idea. But I approached it from the standpoint of a deal. A kind of a marriage. If one side of a marriage has to be really talked into the marriage, it probably aint going to be a very good deal for either one of them. But if you mutually think that this is a good thing. In this case, if you think this is a good thing for the country, then you have an opportunity to do some wonderful things together.
Im offering myself up. Im saying that I have the background, the capability, and the concern to do this and Im doing it for the right reasons. But Im not particularly interested in running for president, but I think Id make a good president.
Nowadays, the process has become much more important than it used to be.
I dont know that they ever asked George Washington a question like this. I dont know that they ever asked Dwight D. Eisenhower a question like this. But nowadays, its all about fire in the belly. Im not sure in the world we live in today its a terribly good thing if a president has too much fire in the belly. I approach life differently than a lot of people. People, I guess, wonder how Ive been as successful as Ive been in everything Ive done. I won two races in TN by 20 point margins, a state that Bill Clinton carried twice. Id never run for office before. Ive never had an acting lesson and I guess thats obvious by people whove watched me. But when they made a movie about a case that I had when I took on a corrupt state administration as a lawyer and beat them before a jury. They made a movie about it and I wound up playing myself in the movie and yeah I can do that.
And when I did it, I did it. Wasnt just a lark. Anything thats worth doing is worth doing well. But Ive always been a little bit more laid back than most. I like to say that Im only consumed by very, very few things and politics is not one of them. The welfare of our country and our kids and grandkids is one of them.
If people really want in their president a super type-a personality, someone who has gotten up every morning and gone to bed every night and been thinking about for years how they could achieve the Presidency of the United States, someone who can look you straight in the eye and say they enjoy every minute of campaigning, I aint that guy. So I hope Ive discussed that and hope I havent talked you out of anything. I honestly want - I cant imagine a worse set of circumstances than achieving the presidency under false pretenses. I go out of my way to be myself because I dont want anybody to think they are getting something they are not getting.
Im not consumed by this process Im not consumed with the notion of being President. Im simply saying Im willing to do whats necessary to achieve it if Im in sync with the people and if the people want me or somebody like me. Ill do what Ive always done in the rest of my life and I will take it on and do a good job and youll have the disadvantage of having someone who probably cant jump up and click their heels three times but will tell you the truth and youll know where the President stands at all times.
Only a lunatic or a pandering liar would profess love for the process of campaigning for president, by all accounts a gruelling 24-7 mentally stressful, and often demeaning enterprise. Later in the same interview, unless I'm mistaken, Thompson added that he'd like to be president and thinks he'd make a good president.