The Men Who Would Be King - Part 2

Yesterday, we covered a slew of former presidential candidates who had the gall and the guts – depending on your perspective – to run for the highest office in the land. So, let’s pick up where we left off… with the current occupant of the Oval Office.

By the way, I chose to use the term “occupant” because Websters defines it as “a person, family, group, or organization that lives in, occupies, or has quarters or space in or on something.” In other words, the person doesn’t have to actually do anything to earn the title of occupant. They simply have to take up residence or, in Geritol Joe’s case, take up space.

OK, point made. Time to move on.

And move on we shall to those wishing to take Mr. Biden’s place behind the Resolute desk, starting with Chris Christie. The former governor of New Jersey, who went from being the Garden State’s most popular officeholder to persona non gratis in the blink of an eye, has no business running for dog catcher let alone President of the United States. But his personal animosity towards Donald Trump is so all-consuming that he will continue to press on through the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire until he runs out of campaign cash.

Which begs the question: who are the people actually funding Christie’s audition for yet another guest commentor gig on CNN or MSNBC? Do they really have so much discretionary cash on hand that they can afford to book a cabin on the HMS Titanic, knowing that it will ultimately rest at the bottom of the North Atlantic?

My guess is that Christie is simply their mouthpiece, a bought and paid for shill whose sole purpose in the race is to fire enough salvos in Trump’s direction that his campaign ship will also start taking on water. To me, it would make a lot more sense for him to throw his weight (no pun intended) behind the upstart candidacies of either Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley than to continue polling in single digits like he did in 2016.

While we’re on the subject of longshot Republicans, why pray tell are Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum still in the race? They are both nice guys, but so is my barber… and he has about as much chance of winning the Republican nomination as they do. The same goes for Vivek Ramaswamy, who made the fatal mistake of believing the early hype about his own candidacy. Sure, he’s an interesting guy with some bold ideas that he can articulate extremely well. But it all boils down to who you can visualize pow-wowing with Vladimir Putin behind closed doors or staring down Xi Jinping across the South China Sea, and when I close my eyes, I just don’t see it.

Maybe if he’d get rid of that unsettling Munchkinland hairdo…

Speaking of GOP presidential wannabees, kudos to Mike Pence and Tim Scott for bowing out early and gracefully, admitting publicly what they (and everyone else) already knew privately: that it’s not my time. At least they gave voice to the once powerful evangelical vote like Mike Huckabee – and to a lesser degree Rick Santorum – did in previous campaigns. Unfortunately for Mike and Tim, the religious right has turned out to be more right than religious, preferring to hitch its wagon to Donald “Two Corinthians” Trump over one of their own.

As for Mr. Trump, I will gladly vote for him in the general election should he get that far, but I still don’t buy the “he deserves it because he was cheated” mentality that many of his supporters continue to peddle. Was he cheated out of a second term by the collusion between the FBI, the CIA, and the MSM? Very possibly. And did Facebook and Twitter almost single-handedly torpedo his campaign by dismissing and downplaying the information about Hunter’s laptop? Absolutely, especially when you consider the fact that 6% of voters who were polled after the 2020 election said that they would have changed their vote had they known about it.

All that being said (cue the Dale’s a #$@*% traitor accusations), the 2024 election should not and cannot be about the 2020 election. Unless, of course, the Republicans want to lose again.

Whereas we must make sure that we have fair and free elections from now on, the GOP needs to look forward, not backward. Otherwise, we run the risk of adopting the “it’s his turn” approach that gave us Bob Dole in 1996, and John McCain in 2008. The resulting Democratic landslides carried over into Congress as well as down ballot races across the country, a debacle from which the Republican Party is just now recovering.

In other words, the 2024 race is actually about the 2028 election and I'd rather be trying to re-elect President DeSantis or President Haley four years from now than starting from scratch... or worse yet, trying to defeat an incumbent Democrat president from California (and no, I'm not talking about Kamala Harris).

Tomorrow, we will continue our weeklong focus on the presidency with a column titled, “Famous Meltdowns on the Campaign Trail.”