The Sane Fringe Candidate
LABASH, MATT
The Sane Fringe Candidate Meet John Cox, Republican candidate for president By Matt Labash Los Angeles When you have a name like John Cox—a plain vanilla name, an achromatic name, a name that...
...His suits fit, and he has no tendrils of out-of-control ear hair...
...The debate is the next day, so Cox wants to run out to the Library to scout out its penetrability...
...So Cox, Herren, and I, along with his wife, two-year-old daughter, and nanny, fly out to Los Angeles anyway...
...It makes him feel like the only kid left out of the class birthday party, and it's taking a psychic toll...
...Cox, it appears, will have his day in the spin room...
...He sounded vexed...
...If he wants to pass for a journalist, he can't go around looking patriotic...
...parent company of The Weekly Standard] building in Midtown yesterday, Mr...
...As a novice, Cox is under the mistaken impression that presidential campaigns are about ideas...
...Cox, who is silver-haired and trim, immaculately tailored in a charcoal suit with a blue pinstripe, looks disappointed but not surprised...
...But it was perfect weather outside, and I wanted to get some fishing in over the weekend...
...You know who [supply-side guru] Arthur Laffer is...
...He says he doesn't even necessarily want to be president—he has a great life—he just wants to see the job done properly...
...But even in his most recent loss, in 2004, his high principle was in evidence...
...In the Soviet Union, they blackball candidates...
...If you've achieved something, created value and wealth in a business world where intelligence and skill and inventiveness are rewarded, is it going to be attractive to go into politics where you've got to steal a press pass to get heard...
...This country needs leadership, leadership from people who've actually accomplished something in their lives...
...And many true conservatives he meets feel the same, which is how a no-name like him can win a South Carolina straw poll, a feat he mentions at the slightest prompting, or at none...
...Or his name isn't John Cox...
...He had me at "eliminate the IRS...
...We are bounced from the debate before it even begins...
...Her second reaction: "I said, 'Well, if you want to do it, go ahead.' He's got a lot of energy...
...Cox had to compete with red-spandex-clad cheerleaders for the New Jersey Nets who had arrived at the same spot to promote the team...
...It doesn't matter, though—he's used to being overshadowed...
...It's much more intimate this way," I say, trying to make him feel better...
...Also, I would be granted exclusive access...
...It doesn't matter though...
...He muses that it doesn't help that the nationwide May Day immigrant-rights rallies are taking place the same day...
...Not a single person had recognized him since we'd been there...
...But he is unhappy about the whole arrangement...
...Not only are illegals taking our jobs, they're taking our publicity...
...That would mean I'd have to fly to Chicago on Sunday...
...It's going off in two days, and all Republican candidates have been invited to participate...
...He's won a Republican straw poll outright in Aiken County, South Carolina, and finished fifth in total votes among all Republican contenders when three other counties were totaled...
...I find my way to the proper room...
...Put on your suit jacket," I tell him...
...So we go back to our hotel on Santa Monica beach...
...He tells her, "It's so ironic that this is at the Reagan Library, because I love Ronald Reagan...
...I don't want people thinking I'm a crazy man, calling and threatening...
...He's been to New Hampshire 14 times, and South Carolina, 10...
...His isn't a performance for the ages, but it's surprisingly good...
...He doesn't own a sandwich board or a megaphone...
...We end up with politicians who make deals for bridges to nowhere...
...What prepares you to solve problems, I would submit, is a life spent actually solving problems...
...Switchboard.com, the online directory, says that there are 1,979 John Coxes throughout the land...
...I tell him to get with the program...
...I've spent a fair amount of time around fringe candidates, but he didn't seem like the others...
...His look is all wrong...
...He looks official, so security starts to get her on the phone, asking if he has an appointment...
...Cox and I board the media shuttle bus at the bottom of a hill that runs us up to the Reagan Library...
...Reagan had plenty of faults...
...Actually, they won't even let me in the stadium to sit on the bench...
...His first marriage broke up, he says, "because she didn't love me anymore...
...But there is only one John H. Cox...
...We end up with the sons of former presidents who put us in a war and botch the whole thing up...
...That John Cox, the Chicago millionaire who was the first declared Republican candidate (as of March 2006), called our offices a few weeks ago...
...As we arrive at the Library and walk through its gates, I give him more pointers on how to pass for a reporter...
...He reads five or so a day during his morning workout on a recumbent bike...
...Cox, by contrast, has three TV monitors on the wall beaming nonstop news, and has eight postal bins filled with newspapers...
...He tells us he is on the South Carolina ballot, and hits the highlights of his platform: how he wants to eliminate the IRS and our disastrous, confusing, punitive tax system and go to a "fair tax" (a consumption tax), how he's pro-life and pro-Social Security reform, how he's anti-spending and anti-corruption...
...Since the hotel room doesn't get MSNBC, Cox's wife mans the live Internet debate feed, waiting for questions to be asked, then hitting the mute button, so Cox can answer for the benefit of the videocam-era and eventually a YouTube audience...
...I asked...
...He later went on to start several businesses: a law/accounting firm, an investment advisory firm, a real estate management company, and a venture capital firm...
...Sarah is partly responsible for his presidential run...
...Constitution...
...Can you bump it to Tuesday...
...He's written that he fundamentally agrees with everything about my book"—his new 220-page book, Politics, Inc., that sets out his ideas...
...I'm a businessman...
...He might as well be wearing a neon "imposter" sign: His posture is too good, his clothes are too pressed, he is way too distinguished-looking and silver-haired, like Blake Carrington out for a stroll—really un-journalist-like...
...A good fiscal conservative, Herren's sought out a cheap wedding videographer instead of an expensive LA film crew to show up with a camera...
...I've got clients...
...The next morning, I arrive early at the Intercontinental Hotel to get a good seat for Cox's brace-yourself announcement—that he has paid his $25,000 registration fee, and is on the South Carolina ballot...
...sign is still in the placard bracket from an event the day before...
...I'm not going to lie to anybody...
...Who, with any level of achievement, would want to get involved in this nonsense...
...Cox hasn't exactly worked out what he's going to do...
...Cox feels he can do the same, given the faux-conser-vative "Rudy McRomney" midgets currently in the on-deck circle...
...Only two reporters are there—a guy from a radio wire service and me...
...Griffin says he'll make some calls and get back to him...
...Meanwhile, doing interviews with the Small Government Times just isn't putting him over the top...
...As we arrive at LAX and Cox is loading his luggage in a rented Highlander, he finally gets NBC News senior vice president Phil Griffin on the phone: "I don't want to make trouble, all I want to do is see America get better...
...We drive an hour and a half in rush hour traffic from our Santa Monica hotel to get there at closing time...
...If you see anything free, especially a drink, take it," I say...
...In the mid-'90s, he led a group that purchased the Jays Foods potato chip manufacturer, sparing more than 600 local jobs and taking it from a $17-million loss to a $3-million profit in less than a year...
...I would not be manhandled or warded off at crucial junctures by any punk press secretaries...
...If they won't let him debate, the least she can do, pretty please, is to let him plead his case to the media in the spin room...
...Actually, there are 66 of them...
...Tired of seeing him barking at the television, at the corrupt and profligate Republican leadership as well as at the feckless president (Cox supported the war, but calls its mismanagement "nothing short of an absolute disaster—Iraqis are pumping less oil today than they were before we invaded"), Sarah told him, "Why don't you do something about it...
...Since he and Sarah spend four months a year at their place in Naples, Florida, he's accumulated a backlog—the papers in the bins—which he intends to go through to make sure he hasn't missed anything...
...The next day—debate day—we arrive early at the press credentialing table...
...And yet, he's lucky if he ever gets mentioned in mainstream media candidate roundups...
...Waking early the next morning, Sarah found him sitting in the living room at 6 a.m., reading a Reagan book...
...There's a fine line here...
...A good Reaganite conservative, Cox has tried to be self-sufficient, financing his campaign thus far to the tune of $800,000...
...In Chicago, we meet up at a trendy Asian fusion restaurant...
...They were supposed to go on a trip the next day, but Cox stayed up all night...
...I ask how that could've happened...
...Later, Cox, Herren, and I adjourn to his well-appointed Gold Coast apartment, which stands sentry over Lake Michigan, on the 45th floor of a high-rise...
...He never says "blood for oil" when critiquing the war in Iraq...
...For one thing, he's wearing American eagle suspenders over a crisp, white dress shirt...
...He never does...
...He added that I'd better get out there shortly, he was having an important press conference on Monday...
...There's nobody around, except for some California Closet Company conventioneers...
...While dozens stopped to gawk at the women, few paid attention to Mr...
...Or rather, it is only one current event—the Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley...
...I'm pissed, because I expected something better out of a conservative Republican president...
...Herren had suggested perhaps hiring Lincoln and Reagan impersonators to stage a debate about why Cox should be included...
...She never does...
...So I'd made some back-up plans...
...In tow are his 25-year-old daughter (he has three others, including a 2-year-old) and his attractive second wife, Sarah, who is 11 years his junior...
...When I informed a colleague that I was going to write a piece on a sane fringe candidate, he looked at me disbelievingly: "Isn't that an oxymoron...
...When Cox spots a media rep, and tries to corner her to again make his spin-room pitch, we are all asked to leave the grounds immediately...
...John Cox is a true conservative, and he doesn't wait for others to make his good fortune—he makes his own...
...Cox's amiable press secretary, Dan Herren, a South Carolina political hand who's a Re/Max realtor on the side, tells me this isn't out of the norm...
...A "JLS Foods Inc...
...Cox feels that none of the current crop of Republicans is actually carrying the leadership mantle of Ronald Reagan...
...I told him," Cox says unapologetically...
...Is that what we want...
...His mahogany-paneled office evidences how different he'd be from Bush, who has bragged that he is undistracted by reading newspapers...
...Wasn't I personable...
...By no means is he humorless, but he seems like a serious person...
...Cox will have his debate one way or another...
...I hand him a prop reporter's notebook, and tell him if anyone asks why he's not holding a camera, since he's supposed to be my photographer, tell them he's taking mental pictures...
...On everything—Iraq, immigration, spending...
...And he is, too...
...But they decide against— wouldn't be very presidential...
...I'd suspected this would be our reception...
...She says she'll run it up the flagpole and get back to him...
...In the red flag department, he has run unsuccessfully for office in Illinois three times: in a congressional, senatorial, and Cook County recorder of deeds race...
...Cox, who is nothing if not honest, says he doesn't, but he's a presidential candidate...
...I'm not going to lie, I felt sorry for John Cox...
...I can't speak for the radio reporter, but to me it sounds pretty good...
...I ask him what happened...
...What you saw demonstrated today is the real problem...
...But there are no gaffes...
...He tells her that he won a straw poll in South Carolina, and got more votes in other straw polls than many of the better-known candidates...
...As I leave him at a courtyard buffet table, where journalists are inhaling raspberry sugar cookies and iced tea (the bar doesn't open until later), I turn to interview some elderly docents, who give me details on the Library's architecture and vegetation...
...I expected a clown show...
...He is fluid and calm, optimistic without seeming Polly-annaish, critical without seeming a crank, at ease with all issues—a man who knows his own mind and isn't afraid to speak it...
...He told me nobody wanted access, so that wouldn't be a problem...
...I'm just a believer in the U.S...
...I'm not a kook...
...But there's only one who is running to be president of the United States of America...
...When I ask the concierge where the John Cox press conference is, he says, "John who...
...Most of my gatherings are pretty intimate," he says, with a pained smile...
...He disappears from my radar...
...But it is not current events Cox has on the brain...
...Courteous...
...He asks Griffin to let him in the spin room...
...As the New York Sun reported, "During his announcement at the News Corp...
...When Cox tells strangers he's running for president, a common reaction is "President of what...
...He will stick to the end...
...A week later, he sues Fox News to force them to let him into their televised debate...
...He needed some media attention, and last time I checked my lapsed 2002 congressional press pass, I was a member of Matt Labash is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard...
...I have a feeling I'm causing ripples up and down MSNBC—they want me to go away," he tells me...
...He needed something that any self-assured, self-contained, well-adjusted person who enters the political arena needs: He needed the validation of people he'd never met...
...He said, 'Honey, I'm going to run for president.'" Her first reaction: "Oh...
...He tells her he feels he should be included, but understands that he isn't...
...I refuse to lower myself," says Cox...
...I'm not going to make myself out to be a buffoon...
...I agreed to see John Cox, but told him there'd be some conditions...
...Umm, the guy came over and found out who I am...
...Still, if you're not an elected official or a celebrity, there is no surer way for a serious person to come to be considered unserious than to run for president...
...Actually doing something...
...I pick up my lammie, and Dan picks up his, giving it to Cox...
...What have I done to merit the treatment I'm getting here...
...Still, even while he makes plenty of noise about the need to seal our borders, the corrupt Mexican government, and a crackdown on businesses that hire illegals, he will not set his hair on fire by becoming a pandering immigrant-basher—he points to fellow GOP hopeful Tom Tan-credo as an example...
...He wants to show America what they missed...
...Minutes later, when I find him again, he is standing next to a burly security goon outside the gate...
...Am I wrong...
...And it's not, he wishes you to know, like he's one of those weirdo Reagan fetishists...
...The Sane Fringe Candidate Meet John Cox, Republican candidate for president By Matt Labash Los Angeles When you have a name like John Cox—a plain vanilla name, an achromatic name, a name that people with more distinctive names would choose if they'd committed a heinous crime and needed to start afresh on the lam—it's easy to feel like everyman and no man...
...Let him tell it: "I'm a serious person...
...Cox enters the atrium of the Library, and asks to see his old nemesis, Joanne Drake...
...He sounded desperate...
...After 20 trips, he's been to all 99 counties in Iowa...
...As we ride past the fringe-sters on the curb—Ron Paul supporters wearing dolphin suits to illustrate Mitt Rom-ney's flip flops, guys in "Stop Chemtrails" hats, etc.—Cox grows reflective: "Am I an anarchist...
...I won a straw poll...
...What's frustrating," he says, "is that I know I could've done well up there...
...I needn't have bothered...
...It's not that he was some giant," Cox says...
...Someone who's been in public office their whole life...
...I don't see why not," he said...
...After his one-man debate, as he sits down at a desk, he seems reinvigorated...
...I decided to redress this injustice and go see John Cox...
...Presidential campaigns are a marathon, not a sprint...
...The advantage of writing about someone who has absolutely no chance of winning is that you get to dictate terms...
...It's just that he stood head and shoulders above all the other midgets...
...He is extremely courteous: "Hello, Joanne, my name is John Cox, and believe me, I understand you are probably running around like a maniac...
...Born poor on Chicago's South Side to a mother who was raped by a father who split shortly thereafter (he points to his very existence as the reason he's adamantly against abortion), Cox, 51, is a self-made man...
...I've been to your library three or four times...
...Rational...
...And so what do we end up with for leadership...
...It demeans him, he feels...
...All, that is, except Cox...
...But they won't let me off the bench...
...Will that prepare them for solving problems...
...He gets Joanne Drake on the phone from the Library, which is organizing the debate along with MSNBC and Politico.com...
...So I guess I'm making my own stadium...
...He finished college in two and a half years "because I was paying for it," he says, adding, "My daughter finished in five years—because I was paying for it...
...Before joining up with Cox, I'd told him that I was credentialed for the debate, so he should get someone from his campaign to apply to be my photographer, which Herren had done...
...The formerly friendly security guards start to exchange nervous looks...
...He spent around $200,000 of his own money running for the recorder's job on the promise to eliminate the position as wasteful spending if he won—the kind of idea that used to fire up conservatives back when they were, how to put it, conservative...
...He tries all morning to call various MSNBC executives and is extra irate because at the last second, CNBC cancels a much-needed television appearance he was supposed to make on Squawk Box...
...He sounded like a man who was tired of screaming into the void...
...Let the public decide if I'm crazy or legitimate...
...Though he didn't have to go into all those details...
...I'm a substantial person...
...I watch out of the corner of my eye, as Cox, on his cell phone, walks across the lawn...
...Instead, he pulls up a chair next to us...
...the media...
...He rips for 90 minutes straight, taking all questions, sometimes taking them twice, when the same question is batted around to multiple candidates who are actually at the debate...
...Cox eyes us two journalists, then says, "No need to go there," nodding at the podium...
Vol. 12 • May 2007 • No. 34
