President Joe and Vice President Mika?
“We don’t need to elect another Clinton for eight years.”
This got an “Amen!” from the crowd.
We need a Scarborough instead?
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Molly Ball at The Atlantic writes, “Sure, why not?”
Let me count the reasons, Molly.
[…]
I have been thinking about what eight years of Scarborough might look like, and I am sorry, my brain shut down and I spent several long minutes staring at my monitor without really seeing anything. I simply could not do it. And I will never get those minutes back. Thank you, Molly.
But look, Morning Joe has demonstrated the Republican ability to stare facts in the face and reject them, a prerequisite for any Republican candidate for office. He has what passes for conservative cred and he has demonstrated it on his show for all the world to see.
“Joe Scarborough was a rock star this weekend,” said Republican New Hampshire state Rep. Joseph Sweeney. “He energized the crowd.”
As Sweeney told Newsmax, “Congressman Scarborough inspired us to keep fighting for Republican values and gave a great roadmap for how we start winning again.”
See what I mean? The guy’s a natural! Conservatives subjected to displays of reality rejection react like a crowd sprayed with Ann Coulter pheromones.
Oh wait…um, yeah…well, anyway…
I apologize for that, but it had to be said.
I won’t address Sweeney’s comment about “Republican values” because I have no idea what he’s talking about. Near as I can tell, Republicans have no values, unless what he means by that is starving old people and children and kicking veterans out onto the street.
According to Newsmax, which seems sold on Morning Joe,
His latest bestseller, “The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics – and Can Again,” has drawn sterling reviews and may offer a blueprint for Scarborough’s campaign platform if he decides to enter the 2016 fray.
Garry Wills, by the way, begged to differ in reviewing the book for the New York Times, exposing Morning Joe for the intellectual light weight he is, and writing that, “Scarborough’s silly picture of American politics leaves out most of the things that matter.”
Again, the man’s got Republican cred, cause that’s what you gotta do to make it as a Republican in today’s GOP: leave out the stuff that matters. Like feeding the kids.
Ike was on the right path? Really? Both Democrats AND Republicans wanted him to run and he said no to both, initially, only finally running at a Republican. But there is nothing remotely Republican about him, look back across more than a half-century. The champion of the Crusade in Europe would not even qualify as a RINO today.
And Reagan? There isn’t a Republican alive today who can get Reagan right. Reagan is and will forever more be, the guy they need him to be to justify what they want to do today. The Reagan Republicans remember has more joints than an action toy and puts any contortionist ever born to shame. Literally, Republicans can and have made Reagan into anything they need him to be, all the while ignoring every fact attaching itself to his name.
In other words, the term “Reagan Republican” has no meaning at all. None. It’s as subjective and, come to think of it, as now oxymoronic a term as ever coined, because like Ike, Reagan would barely qualify as a RINO today, the way he raised taxes and grew government.
Just to prove my point about Reagan, listen to Jennifer Horn, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party:
“He was engaging, humorous, and insightful in his remarks,” she said, adding, “no one agrees with anyone all of the time, but Joe offered a vision for winning in 2014 that focused on the core GOP principle of limited government and that is something we all feel passionately about.”
What does Reagan have to do with any principle of limited government?
Scarborough argues for a “principled but pragmatic” approach but principles and pragmatism seem a reach for Morning Joe, if you’ve ever watched him. Sure he has his moments, like when he eviscerated Sharron Angle or called out Arizona’s immigration law as totalitarian. But he also thinks Fox News isn’t any more biased than other networks.
But Morning Joe has also shown he can look facts in the face and see…well, I don’t know what Joe sees but it isn’t facts. And if he can’t grasp the issues sitting at his desk with a team of writers to back him up, I fail to see how he’s going to manage it under pressure as the president in the Oval Office.
Sorry…I just went blank again. Honestly, I can’t go there. Not without a trauma team standing by.
And look, even if Morning Joe could find principles and pragmatism, how is he going to get any votes? As Sarah Jones noted here a couple of years ago, he doesn’t seem to get that the GOP is full of extremists. Principles and pragmatism don’t get you votes in today’s GOP.
Which leads to the question: Is Morning Joe planning on running as a Democrat? Because right now, (and you can ask Charlie Crist) that’s the only way a Republican is going to get any votes for principles and pragmatism.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
