Hunter S. Thompson, RIP

"He's the only one that could have killed him." -- My old roommate Tim, upon hearing that Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide on Sunday.

America lost a great patriot this weekend. Part Thomas Paine, part Keith Moon, Hunter Thompson spent his life in constant search of what it meant to be American, and in a tireless quest to touch the spinning vortex of the American Dream.

He was iconic in a way that few, if any, have ever been. He fathered a style of journalism, was immortalized in two films and many biographies well before his death, and even had a political cartoon character styled after him.

One of his greatest works, 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972' literally rewrote the rulebook on how to cover a political campaign, and serves as one of the most compelling accounts of an American election year ever put in print.

Though Thompson was primarily known for his outrageous, albeit somewhat exaggerated, appetite for drugs and booze, what he ultimately will be remembered for is his incisive and unequivocating account of a remarkable era in American history, laid down in several classic works.

For the last thirty-odd years of his life, Thompson was a national treasure, at once hermetically sealed in his reclusive Aspen ranch and out amongst all of us.

Alas, the Bush years proved too much for a man so closely in tune with our national character. As Thomas Paine once said, "These are the times that try men's souls." May Hunter's soul now rest in peace.