Presidential precedents
Sir: Mr J. W. M. Thompson is quite right (`Spectator's notebook,' 12 April). There is far too much ignorant punditry on American matters. It seems to me, however, that he overdoes the joke by putting too many deliber- ate mistakes into the specimen he offers. Other- wise, it's a fine example of the extreme silliness of much British comment on American elec- tions (though not usually in the SPECTATOR of course). I like his skilful use of the numbers game to suggest that the Republicans choose good presidential candidates. Very satirical.
For those interested, here are Mr Thompson's deliberate mistakes in the six statements of fact in his opening paragraph. Three presidqnts have died in office in the past fifty years, not two; six have run for re-election, not four; one of them was defeated, not two; five were re-elected, not two. Of his other two statements one is correct (that there have been nine presidents since 1918) but the other, that three have refused to run again, depends on what happens later this year.
Patrick Brogan 9 Camberwell Grove, London SE5
1. W. M. Thompson writes : Mr Brogans satirical letter doesn't in any way invalidate the points I was making, the main one being that only two presidents in fifty years have success- fully fought more than one presidential electiop, and that therefore President Johnson's announcement that he would not run again was by no means a historical freak. When he says six of the nine presidents have run for re- election he presumably includes Coolidge, Tru- man and Johnson, who inherited the presidency through death and subsequently fought their one and only presidential election (a group I was clearly excluding). Admittedly President John- son's refusal to run may not be a refusal to run, but at the moment it is the best evidence we have. I accept Mr Brogan's arithmetic, but I wish he had read what I wrote with more care. Ile wouldn't then attribute to me the view that the Republicans choose 'good' presidential candi- dates: what I said was that the notion that they were 'fatally bad' at picking candidates isn't supported by the record, except with Goldwater. Incidentally, since Mr Brogan is obviously a stickler for accuracy in small things, I have taken the liberty of correcting his mis-spelling of my name.
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