Does Fred Thompson Have A Trophy Wife?
As far as I’m concerned, Fred Thompson is the GOP candidate for President in 2008. He’s the only candidate anyone seems really excited about, and as soon as he’s in the race he’ll drown out the rest of the field.
So since he’s a sure thing (in my book anyway), I guess it’s time to address something the left is already bringing up: Fred Thompson’s wife.
At first glance all I can say is, I’m a fan. She’s gorgeous.
But some people are upset that Thompson is married to this beauty. Because she’s younger than him, and he married her after he divorced his first wife of 26 years. And dating her makes Thompson almost a sex predator (until the guy at the link learned how to read a date).
This will undoubtedly be the left’s line on Thompson. Because they’ll have nothing else. Thompson is charming, articulate, principled and exudes a sense of confidence and optimism Americans have been longing for in a President since, well, Ronald Reagan. Which isn’t to suggest that Thompson is Reagan (I’ll wait until he’s had his shot in the White House before making that call), but he certainly seems that way, and it’s going to be tough for any of the left’s class warriors and anti-war demagogue candidates to match that.
But one issue that is a potential stumbling block is Thompson’s personal life, so let’s address that. He got married when he was 17 in 1959 to Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey. They both worked to put Fred through college and support their three kids. In 1985, around the time Thompson started his acting career, he divorced his wife. At the time he’d been working as a lobbyist in D.C., and he was not to become a Senator until years later in 1994 when he was elected in a special election to fulfill Al Gore’s vacated seat (Gore had been elected Vice President).
Thompson married his current wife, Jeri Kehn, in 2002. Seventeen years after leaving his first wife, and the same year he retired from the Senate.
Now personally, I don’t see anything in that time line which indicates that Thompson has done anything immoral. He obviously didn’t leave his first wife for Kehn, as Kehn came 17 years later and Thompson reportedly didn’t even meet her for the first time until 1994. He also didn’t marry Kehn for publicity’s sake as he did so after he resigned from the Senate and well before any talk of a Presidential campaign. There’s rumors circulating on the left that Thompson divorced his first wife because he knocked up a married woman, but then there’s also rumors on the left about 9/11 being a plot by Karl Rove to get Bush re-elected in 2004…so let’s take that with a grain of salt.
Ultimately, I don’t think this is going to matter. But then, I’m not James Dobson either. Tags: Domestic Issues, Politics
