Stage Call for Thompson

Since when has "strategy" been an excuse for laziness?

Nine Republican presidential candidates gathered Sunday at Drake University in Iowa. One candidate, Fred Thompson, who is a former senator from Tennessee and who has not formally entered the race, stayed away. While Mr. Thompson had a relatively tough week for a non-candidate, with unflattering stories about his wife, staff, and fundraising, much of the conventional wisdom on his decision to put off a formal entry into the race still suggests this is a wise move.

A non-candidate can "test the waters" and refrain from registering with the Federal Election Commission, which requires a more rigorous set of financial disclosures. Unannounced candidates can avoid the press, which now must feed numerous news cycles each day. A non-candidate doesn't have to spend hours prepping for encounters with voters.

A potential candidate who portrayed a compelling authority figure for five years on one of the most highly rated shows on broadcast television, as Mr. Thompson did on NBC's "Law and Order," the thinking goes, does not have to do as much as a conventional candidate to become known.

For Mr. Thompson, this thinking is flawed. Voters in the first two electoral contests, Iowa and New Hampshire, take seriously their roles in vetting presidential candidates. These are people like the head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Rochester, N.H., Jim Golden, who attended a recent speech by Rudolph Giuliani. Mr. Golden was still undecided between Senator McCain and Mr. Giuliani. Neither he nor any of the other voters interviewed during Mr. Giuliani's two-day foray into New Hampshire last week expressed any interest in Mr. Thompson. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has used the past months as an opportunity to concentrate on New Hampshire, and has emerged at or near the top of recent political polls.

In Iowa, where Mr. Romney is leading in polls, Mr. Thompson faces similar challenges. "He looks good in the showroom," a columnist with the Des Moines Register and recognized expert on the Iowa caucuses, David Yepsen, said on CBS's "Face the Nation" last month. "He's not been out here on the trail, and I think that's going to be a big test for him."

By avoiding Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Thompson is only increasing the chances that he will lose these two encounters thereby allowing a candidate other than himself to bask in the press spotlight that accompanies an early electoral victor, the cover of the weekly news magazines, the marquee status on television news programs, and the obligatory appearance on the morning shows. If anything, the glaring absence of Mr. Thompson from the race has only worsened since John Dickerson penned a piece about his "laziness" back in May, which anticipated a July entry by the candidate. Mr. Thompson's status as a Southerner, though, will help him in South Carolina, another early contest.

Yet the issue is not just one of political tactics. Whoever becomes the next president will face as challenging a time in the White House as we have seen in more than 100 years: the president will have to confront the aftermath of the Iraq war, the high probability of Iran developing nuclear weapons, a still dangerous Al Qaeda, a fractured American polity, a hostile Europe, and continued policy questions over our economy and system of health care.

The next four years is not the time for a slacker president. No matter how imperfect, the best way our system can test candidates and put them under pressure is through a rigorous electoral campaign. Mr. Thompson's defenders liken him to Ronald Reagan, who, it is argued, took a no heavy lifting approach to both politics and governing. That is spin, however, and not reality. It should be remembered that Reagan challenged Gerald Ford rigorously in 1976 and wasted no time seeking the 1980 nomination. "Reagan also had moved quickly after Ford's defeat in 1976 by establishing in February 1977 a valuable campaign resource for conservative Republican office-seekers," Jack Germond and Jules Witcover recorded in their account of the 1980 presidential race, "Blue Smoke and Mirrors."

Reagan established Citizens for the Republic, which enabled him to cement his relations with local politicians and grassroots activists who are so important in Iowa and New Hampshire. While Reagan did not attend every small event, Republican voters were very much aware that he had been an outspoken national proponent for conservatism since Barry Goldwater's candidacy in 1964 and a presence in Iowa since 1967 when he started making speeches there. Although Mr. Thompson worked as an actor like Reagan, the former had spent the preceding decade and a half focused on remaking the GOP and America, not on catching fictional crooks on television.

It's not too late for Mr. Thompson to turn things around, shake hands, meet voters, and tangle with the press in New Hampshire as Messrs. McCain, Giuliani, and Romney have been doing. But it's getting close. One can't be a Reagan by remaining outside the arena.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.