Politico's Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei stir things up this morning by citing rumors about various possible candidates for the Republican nomination in 2012. Two of the names mentioned: Gen. David Petraeus, the hero of Iraq and now the commander of US forces in the Mideast, and MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough.
It's all blue-sky stuff at this point, but it is interesting that Bob Dole, one of the giants of the Republican Party over the past 40 years, is listed as a behind-the-scenes advocate for Petraeus, while the only named person touting Scarborough is Donny Deutsch, who is a liberal Democrat trust-fund kid, who seems to have nothing better to do than hang around MSNBC and CNBC, hoping to get on the air.
Which is to say, the rumors about Petraeus probably have some basis in Republican reality. Who knows if Petraeus is even interested--he is, after all, on active duty, and Barack Obama is his chain-of-command superior--but if he were interested in running, well, there's the encouraging precedent of Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower, two earlier war-heroes-turned-president.
But Scarborough? That's ridiculous, for three reasons.
First, "Morning Joe" is barely a Republican these days. More precisely he is only a Republican insofar as he can use his putative Republicanism as a hammer against Republicans--he can say, "I'm a Republican, and even I think that my party has gone too far." Having spent most of his time these past few years bashing the GOP, just as his masters at MSNBC wish, he is unlikely to be a Republican champion. Republicans understand that "MSDNC" is a wholly-owned liberal-left subsidiary of General Electric, and GE, of course is a partly owned subsidiary of the Obamafied federal government, thanks to the various bailouts that GE has received, and the various political-economic rent-seeking schemes, such as cap + trade, that GE has conceived, all of which need the power of Uncle Sam to bring into profitable fruition.
Second, there's the issue of the young woman, Lori Klausutis, who was found dead in his Congressional office--Scarborough was never charged with anything, and there's no reason to think he did anything wrong, but just how did her death happen?
Third, it's not as if Scarborough has ever really done anything in politics. He was elected to Congress for four terms. That's great, but there are hundreds of others with the same achievement, and nobody is thinking about them for president. Scarborough's distinction is that he is on TV, but here again, if your big buddies are the likes of Donny Deutsch, you probably wouldn't even get anywhere inside the Democratic Party.
So why this flurry of Scarborough activity? As suggested in the headline, perhaps MSNBC wants to give Joe some extra credibility as a player in Republican circles. After all, the country is moving back,now, in a Republican direction--in response to "Obamanation." Maybe MSNBC sees that it needs to get back in good with Middle America, after veering way to the left with Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Ed Schultz. As noted, any such attempt to reposition MSNBC back to the right, or even the middle, is likely to fail, but having "Republican candidate" Scarborough around might be a good talking point for GE/NBC/MSNBC.
Another possibility, of course, is that MSNBC has just the opposite strategy in mind. Maybe the lefties at MSNBC are doubling down, on the left. They have Keith, and Rachel, and Ed, and they have pretty much flipped Chris Matthews. And the daytime schedule is a bunch of no-names, spouting various DNC talking points. But Scarborough is an exception. If the "2012" talk gets going, liberals will complain, and then maybe MSNBC suits will say that Joe has become too "political," or too "controversial," or too... something. And then they can get rid of him, and replace him with someone more pleasing to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod.
