One of the more frustrating statements made during a campaign is impugning the motives of presidential candidates for running their campaigns. Now, certainly, I’ve been guilty of this in the past, but not to the degree that some folks have gone.

There are many oft-cited accusations made as to why people will run for President. Let’s take a look at some of them:

This is a very popular charge made against candidates when others don’t understand why they’re still in the race or why they announced in the first place.

Such is often alleged against Alan Keyes. In 1992, he paid himself $8500 a month out of campaign coffers to cover his living expenses. While this decision has raised hackles for almost two decades, most people don’t know that prior to running for office, he was earning $20,000 a month. It would be odd to say someone was in it “for the money” when the one time they paid themselves out of campaign coffers they took a greater than 50% pay cut.

Since that time, in three presidential runs and an Illinois Senate Run, Keyes has not reaped any personal gain directly from his campaign. It is true that his campaigns in the late 1990s gave people a greater chance to see his eloquent speaking, leading to higher speaking fees, but neither his Illinois Senate Campaign nor his most recent Presidential Campaign are likely to increase this. Nor is running for President the easiest way to increase speaker’s fees. In 1995 and 1999, when Keyes ran for President, he had to suspend a growing radio talk show to make a bid for the White House. Ask Hannity and Limbaugh: A regular talk show can provide higher income than speeches spread throughout the year. It’s inconceivable that someone would try to build wealth through higher speaking fees.

Given Keyes’ background as a Reagan Administration insider, there were far more easy paths to wealth. By remaining in Washington and dedicating his life to lobbying for various industries, or heading a Conservative Think Tank, Keyes could easily be a millionaire several times over.

Similarly, Mike Huckabee leaving the campaign to deliver paid speeches in the Cayman Islands and Colorado Springs has raised hackles about Huckabee remaining in the race to increase his speaking fees. While the inspirational story of a man born to a poor family in Arkansas rising to power gets a little bit sweeter now that he’s won Iowa and several other states, Huckabee has lost money in this campaign, as he’s had to scale back speaking arrangements and his wife left her job to campaign with him.

For some reason, it seems that many conservatives have concluded that public speaking is not an acceptable way to make a living in America. It seems some people have forgotten that Ronald Reagan made money that way, and conservatives seem to like him just fine. It’s a service and people are willing to pay for it in the free market. What’s wrong with it?

At the same time, we complain about self-financed candidates who try to buy an election like the Yankees try to buy the American League Pennant each year, as well as candidates who display a record of absenteeism from the offices they were elected to as they seek the presidency and neglect the duties they’ve sworn to perform. If we don’t want the election closed to anyone other than the wealthy and elected leaders, we have to accept that candidates for public office still need to put food on their families’ dinner tables and they have to get the money to pay for dinner from somewhere. And public speaking, for these candidates, is the main job conducive to running for president.

On a related note, some have suggested Governor Huckabee remains in the race to promote his books. His book, “From Hope to Higher Ground” is #28,956 on the Amazon Best-seller List, “Character Makes a Difference” is #11,530, and “Quit Digging Your Grave With Your Knife and Fork” is #12,296. Simply put, there are at least 11,529 books on Amazon more popular than any of Huckabee’s and if this were all about book marketing, there are much easier ways to achieve these type of results. Basically, those arguing Huckabee is staying in the race to sell books are arguing that he’s staying in for $120 a day in royalties (if that.)

Of course, the second allegation is that candidates are simply out for their ego. It should be noted that ego always plays a role in a presidential campaign. Every campaign has a bit of ego behind it if you’re going to run for leader of the free world. However, ego as a sole motivator for losing candidates is weak.

Huckabee answered this point after losing Wisconsin, pointing out that holding concession speeches week after week is hardly a boost for one’s ego.

It gets even worse when you get into the more extreme also-ran category. Losing a state with less than 10% of the vote is even less fun as you get mostly ignored by the media and receive ever-decreasing crowds. Nor is the height of achievement to be shut out of debates and left on the outside looking in.

A losing presidential bid is more likely to bruise your ego. It amounts to rejection on the highest level. Members of your party in twenty plus states have said no to you and tens of millions have rejected you. If you’re concerned about your ego, you’ll protect it from further indignities, not keep at it.

There’s certainly been talk of this. Both Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee were said to have been playing for the role of McCain’s vice-president. With Huckabee, this definitely looks not to be the case, and I would venture it is unlikely with Fred Thompson as well.

To use your presidential campaign to play for a vice-presidential nomination, you have to be incredibly cunning to convince enough people to support your campaign as a serious candidate for President, while at the same time believing the only way you can get to the White House is after serving as vice-president. It should be pointed out that since 1968, only two of eight men to serve as vice-president became president. Further, in eleven seriously contested nomination campaigns, a former presidential rival has been chosen only three times (Reagan ’80, Dukakis’88, and Kerry ’04.) So basically, if you take those figures together, your odds of becoming president by securing the veep nomination with a former rival is approximately seven percent.

So, to run a shadow campaign for vice-president by running a presidential campaign requires the most extreme Machiavellian cunning and deception coupled with the low self-esteem that thinks such a highly improbable road to the White House is worth a year or more of your life.

When one cannot understand a candidate’s reason for running and options 1-3 are eliminated, the next safe box to put the candidate in is the “crazy” box. Alan Keyes, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, and quite a few others have landed in this catch-all box.

Of course, crazy in this case usually doesn’t mean crazy. Do we think that Ron Paul is mentally imbalanced and in need of psychiatric care and medicine, or potentially institutionalization? Few of us would answer yes.

Were a psychiatrist to examine “crazy” mainstream candidates, he would be unlikely to declare them insane. The far left candidates may hold crazy beliefs, but it’s because they’ve adopted an incorrect worldview, not because of mental instability.

Of course, there are some fringe candidates who are crazy, such as Michael Jesus Archangel, who states that since he was a small boy he knew he was “God and Michael the Archangel.” However, not all little known candidates are insane. Many are patriotic Americans who see something wrong that needs fixing, and are doing something about it. Given that we American voters are the ones who keep electing candidates who will not fix Social Security and are letting our unfunded obligations explode, perhaps we are the crazy ones.

This was Ari Fleischer’s idea for why Huckabee stays in the race. Sorry, but Huckabee probably has enough frequent flier miles to fly anywhere he wants with no reason for the rest of the scheduled campaign season.

Okay, so if that’s not why candidates run, why do they?

Strange item to top the list, I know. Who would have ever thought that a candidate who announced for president actually wanted the job? Seriously, though, I think most do. Many of these candidates drop out during the exploratory stage, such as former Congressman John Kasich, former Governor Jim Gilmore, former Governor Tom Vilsack, Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle, and Lamar Alexander in 2000. If they don’t have the wherewithal to win, there’s little point to running.

Now certainly, some candidates have a longer shot than others, but most of the people who run for President are accomplished people in some arena, and have confidence in their own ability to overcome the odds and show people why they should be President.

It seems that half the members of the Senate at one time or another launch a completely futile bid for the White House. It’s the closest thing to pure ego in a campaign I’ve ever witnessed. The main reason they don’t qualify as such is that they also hope to catch on and actually win the presidency. But if they don’t, at least someone will notice what a great Congressman they are.

Why is this a motivator? Simple. There are 535 members of Congress. If an American can name five of them, he’s doing good. Many members labor in obscurity, crafting finely tuned legislation that changes the course of America, but is never recognized. Those members of Congress that are nominated, ironically, tend to be less substantive as far as legislative accomplishments go, (i.e. John Kerry and the current Democratic frontrunners.) If you’re a “great” member of Congress, and want everyone else to know how great you are, what better way to do it than to announce for President?

These candidates typically head to Iowa and New Hampshire, where they put audiences to sleep with a long list of legislative accomplishments. “In 1987, I sponsored a bill with Senator Kennedy to amend Section 327 of the Internal Revenue Code…”

For them, this is their chance to shine. Presidential politics is the height of political competition. Yes, for the record, I am saying your congressman runs for president for much the same reason your teenager wants to go on American Idol. And who knows, maybe all the great things that made them superbly wonderful members of Congress will carry them to the White House. Unfortunately, it takes more than amending Section 327 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Yes, some candidates don’t care about winning, but are simply trying to bring a message to Americans that desperately needs to be heard: an issue that other candidates aren’t addressing or aren’t addressing effectively. Their primary goal is not to filch an election win, but to use a presidential campaign to address issues that would otherwise go unaddressed or would only be paid lip service to. “Prophet-in-chief” my wife has sometimes dubbed this variety. This largely explains the campaigns of candidates such as Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul in this cycle as well as many other candidates in past cycles.

Sometimes, presidential campaigns are not about the presidency, but about starting or establishing the candidate as the leader of a political movement. In 1988, Pat Robertson finished second in Iowa and used his campaign to launch the Christian Coalition. To this day, he is still considered by the media as the leader of Christian conservatives (whether we want him or not.)

In 2000, Gary Bauer tried to make himself the next leader of Christian conservatives by waging an aggressive campaign in Iowa that came up short, and is a less prominent figure than before he ran.

In 2004, Al Sharpton tried to become a voice for black voters, but this didn’t work out, either.

At the end of the day, some presidential candidates may be trying to work out childhood issues, some may be trying to grab power for themselves. But whatever their reason, most want to be President, not Vice-President or Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Most aren’t gaining money by running, in fact, they’re losing it. What we must respect about a presidential campaign is that it takes some of America’s best on a stage where they are ridiculed, mocked, and have their lives opened to the entire nation, even the world.

In the end, all but one candidate finds themselves unsuccessful. They find they’ve lost 14-16 months away from their spouses and children and gotten little to nothing out of it. Their sacrifice should be honored. Whoever is elected should send a t-shirt to his or her rivals, “I Spent a Year Running for President, and all I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt.”