Thursday, February 13, 2014

SCARBOROUGH IS GRIFTING LIKE TRUMP (OR IF HE'S NOT, HE'S REALLY DELUSIONAL)

We really have to start treating Donald Trump's transparently phony faux-"flirtations" with electoral politics the way baseball broadcasters treat idiot fans who run onto the field -- just turn the cameras away and don't provide any coverage at all. Alas, The New York Times hasn't figured this out, perhaps because many members of the New York Republican Party haven't figured out that Trump is full of it):
Trump Stops Short of Entering the Race for Governor

In the end, the Donald did not.

Amid a buzz of anticipation, Donald Trump once again flirted with a run for governor on Wednesday night, but stopped short of committing his money, time and oversize personality to stopping the re-election hopes of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Instead, Mr. Trump said he would run only if the Republican Party unified behind him -- "The last thing you need is a primary" -- and asked him to take the nomination....

[Trump spoke] in a keynote address to the county party's annual Lincoln Day Dinner....

Mr. Trump's potential candidacy was openly encouraged from the dais on Wednesday night, where the county chairman, Daniel W. Isaacs, wished aloud that Mr. Cuomo "will be called in 2015 a former governor."

And then, pausing, he added, "Especially if someone sitting at table 13 tells us a certain something." He then unveiled a mock-up of a campaign poster reading "Trump for Governor." Several dozen -- of several hundred attendees -- stood, and a chant of "Run, Donald, Run," began. It ended quickly....
The non-chanters at least didn't embarrass themselves. The chanters are pathetic.

Trump isn't passing on the race because polls show Cuomo would crush him; he's passing he never runs for anything, despite pulling this will-he-or-won't-he? stunt repeatedly -- in four presidential cycles and in the run-up to the governor's race eight years ago. It strokes his ego, keeps his name in the news, and helps his brand -- and that's all that matters.

A marginally less buffoonish guy who seems to be working the same grift is Joe Scarborough:
Joe Scarborough can't seem to give a straight answer about his possible presidential ambitions.

On Wednesday, the MSNBC host of "Morning Joe" was interviewed on ABC's "The View" and on conservative talk show "The Hugh Hewitt Show."

“The View’s” Barbara Walters asked Scarborough if he wants to run for president.

"No, no," he replied. His co-host Mika Brzezinski interrupted and asked, "Do others want him to run? Yes." Audience members at the talk show burst out with applause.

On Hewitt's program that same day, Scarborough was asked if he had ruled out running for the White House in 2016.

"No, I'm not going -- I won't rule anything out. I've always said, and I've always been very open about the fact that the greatest job I ever had, and the greatest honor I ever had, was being in the House of Representatives,"he said. "But no, I've always said I wanted to get back in. It's just a matter of timing, and we'll see when it happens."
Scarborough's a conservative, but he deviates from right-wing correctness just enough (on guns, for instance) that in a GOP primary campaign he'd be the new Jon Huntsman. I assume he knows that and is just entertaining this speculation to promote his brand.

Or is he? Back in 2012, Vanity Fair told us this:
After the presidential inauguration in January, Joe ... plans on publishing a memoir that will serve -- no joke -- as a vehicle to test the waters for a presidential run in 2016.
The book, which he published last fall, wasn't a memoir -- it was a manifesto called The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered the Art of Politics -- and Can Again. The book accused far-rightists of doing grievous harm to the GOP -- not exactly a message you want to spread if you're hoping to win in Iowa and South Carolina; it also described Ronald Reagan as an Eisenhower-like moderate (heresy!). It was poorly reviewed, especially on the right, and was not exactly a blockbuster. Yeah, good luck running, Joe, if that's your plan.

5 comments:

Victor said...

I know what Rand, and people of that ilk, are insinuating about Hillary, and Bill's BJ from an intern.

But, Monica is still alive.

Schmoe's got his own woman problem.
Lori Klausutis, a young woman who worked in Cup O' Schmoe Scarborough's Fort Walton Beach office where she had served as a constituent services coordinator since May, 1999, was found dead and alone, in that office.

Of course, Schmoe got under the radar because this was in Florida in the summer of 2000, and the DC Village MSM was very busy at home at that time screaming about Chandra Levy's death possibly coming as a result of Congressman Gary Condit, and an alleged affair.

Schmoe left Congress to - wait for it - spend more time with his family.
He then married another woman, shortly after leaving.

He won't run.
I'll be shocked if he does.

Unknown said...

Joe's a legend in his own mind. Being a TV star and setting his own agenda on a daily basis has inordinately boosted his ego.
But he can't just talk over his opponents in politics the way he does on TV. He doesn't quite realize he has a home-field advantage at MSNBC.

The New York Crank said...

Oh please God, puhleeez let The Donald run for governor of New York. Oh pleaseohpleaseohpleaseoh please!

We need him. We need him desperately, because we haven't had a decent local political clown act here in New York State since Anthony Weiner's wife confiscated his cell phone.

Very crankily yours,

Steve M. said...

Well, the Times says Carl Paladino might run again, so there's a pretty good consolation prize. (Bet he'd win the Republican primary again.)

Roger said...

I want Joe to run just to watch that super-creepy Joe/Mika dynamic on the campaign trail.

I also want MSNBC to give Joe's show to Woody Allen so they can rename it Morning Wood.