His demeanor seems to me a lot Like Jimmy Stewart in Harvey, probably delusional but so sincere.
Late night comics have assured us he won’t get within a kilometer of the White House.
Interesting article from The Nation: “Lincoln Chafee Keeps Ripping ‘Delusional’ Neocons and Democrats Who Compromise With Them.”
Lincoln Chafee and his father John were both very liberal Republicans, a breed that used to be far more common than it is now.
I found this at BrainGlutton’s link:
Maybe it just took him a while to realize that all the Republican talk of fiscal responsibility was complete bollocks.
He knew it. He was a Republican legacy but he wasn’t particularly conservative, and that reflected in his voting record in the Senate. He tried to remain as one of those near extinct animals, a liberal Republican, but once he was out of office it was no use to him. If he had switched sides while still in the Senate he might have served another term. George and Laura must have hated him because they endorsed him in his last senate run.
His heart and mind are in the right place, but he is not much of a politician, his career was based on his father’s long successful political career. He doesn’t even register in the polls now. That’s because everybody that they call just says “Who?” when they ask about him.
Is Lincoln Chafee mentally ill? If not, can anyone offer a better explanation for his candidacy?
I would imagine he thinks he has a unique perspective on the problems facing this country and the base of the party would rally around him if they hear what he has to say.
Honestly, I don’t understand why most of these folks are running, R or D. The majority poll in the 1 - 3% range and have no chance of catching the attention of the public.
We say ‘special’ now.
Eh, the GOP race is topsy-turvy enough that even some of the people at the bottom of the stack can hold up a rational, if not likely hope, that things will turn their way before the end. And the others are either running for a Cabinet or VP post (Jindal), to up their public profile to help their private sector venture (Huckabee), because they want a platform for a particular issue (Lindsey Graham) or because they think God wants them to run (Santorum).
But Chafee isn’t going to be anyones VP, its hard to his current non-campaign as really helping his public profile, he doesn’t really have any pet issue to promote and I don’t think he’s on a religious mission. By most reports, he hasn’t even really done much in the way of campaigning or organizing a staff.
Honestly, I think he must have had “run for President” on some sort of bucket list, and now that his political career is basically over he basically decided it was now or never.
OK. Is Special Chafee mentally ill?
I do think he wants the VP slot. I also think that he figured he could run as maybe the one person who could cross the aisle and get some work done with the GOP. Anyone who knows anything about the current crop of Republicans knows that they abhor disloyalty above all things and would burn this country to the ground rather than work with Chafee. Not that I think they will work with any of the others either, but that’s more for policy reasons than personal ones.
That strikes me as the most likely explanation. It’s also consistent with his almost total absence of an actual, you know, campaign. Plus, if “become a national laughingstock” happened also to be on his bucket list… well, he gets to check that off too.
I saw the title of this thread, and I was like “Chafee, Chafee, Chafee NOOOOOOO” and “bahahahahahahahh”
What about instituting National Quahog Day? (Sold by the kilo, of course!)
That’s a Rhode Island joke, folks!
“I’m Lincoln Chafee, and I have DirecTV.”
“I’m Special Chafee, and I have cable.”
I think you got the characters the wrong way 'round.
“Why did you vote for that bill?”
“Cut me some slack, my dad had just died!”
“You mean like your campaign?”
Having lived under his reign as Governor, and enjoyed the special privilege of being his constituent when he was a Senator - I think he would make a swell Ambassador to a small island nation.
I didn’t know we had an embassy in the Antarctic.