CNN “pundit” Chris Cillizza thinks MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough is planning to run for president in 2020. Seriously.
“If you wanted to run for president in 2020, you’d be doing exactly what Joe Scarborough is doing right now,” Cillizza writes. He also tweeted, “Don’t look now but Joe Scarborough is starting to look like a presidential candidate.”
He points to Scarborough’s recent Washington Post op-ed in which he announced yet again that he is leaving the Republican Party.
Cillizza then cites New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi’s cover story on Scarborough and his co-host and fiancee Mika Brzezinski in which the pair comes off as downright deranged at times—they named their rabbits, for instance, Donald and Melania Trump because the rabbits were, well, being rabbits. Cillizza cites a quote in Nuzzi’s piece in which Scarborough’s friend says the Morning Joe co-host has “this internal drive that all politicians have where you look in the mirror and say, ‘I should be leading people.’”
But wait, there’s more. Cillizza points out that Nuzzi wrote that the couple “didn’t rule out that Scarborough might be interested in running for president in the future.”
Nuzzi, though, went on Twitter on Tuesday to essentially tell Cillizza, “not so fast, my friend.”
“As the author of the story, let me just say: no, he isn’t,” she tweeted of a potential Scarborough 2020 run.
As the author of the story, let me just say: no, he isn't. https://t.co/GJtNUGb2fY
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) July 25, 2017
Cillizza isn’t even a good hype man, for he seemed to be unaware of a Florida Congressman’s recent tweet about Scarborough’s presidential ambitions that would have made his argument a tad less flimsy:
.@JoeNBC is a friend. He was the first politician 2 inspire me. Most every conversation I've had w him for 20 yrs end w him as POTUS
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) July 3, 2017
Only those in Scarborough’s elite media base like Cillizza would even think that Scarborough’s current actions are setting him up favorably for a presidential run when there are too many reasons to count that would make such a scenario implausible.
First, Scarborough would have to find a foolish sugar daddy like Michael Bloomberg to run with him on a “No Labels” ticket. But in that scenario, Scarborough, who sees himself as a frontman, would be at the bottom of the ticket. That doesn’t seem like it would appealing to a man who envisions himself as “President Scarborough.”
Second, the Scarborough who wrote the great Rome Wasn’t Burnt in a Day book or hosted Scarborough Country could probably make a credible run for the presidency. But this MSNBC-ized version of Scarborough with the metro haircut has no base of support whatsoever unless he is running to be the president of the exclusive club that consists of No Labels members, former politicians who went to St. Albans, and elite and smug legacy media journalists and other “thinkers” who so often mistake sounding “smart” and throwing out “buzzwords” for actual knowledge.
Left-wing activists will never consider him to be one of their own. Conservatives despise him, along with Reagan Democrats. And even moderate Republicans and Never Trumpers have trashed Scarborough for making a big fuss about leaving the Republican party over Trump when he had been yukking it up with the “blue-collar billionaire” and praising his candidacy last year. Scarborough should ask his colleague Megyn “am I Jon Koncak or Brock Osweiler?” Kelly what happens when one has no base or “country.”
“Never forget,” as one Trump-hating moderate Republican said when Scarborough, the GOP’s version of Zell Miller, announced he had officially left the GOP.
Third, Scarborough is living a great life right now. He gets to pretend to be a rock star, and some music critics have even said that some of his songs are not completely terrible, especially for someone who used to be a Republican. It seems the third time is indeed the charm, as Scarborough has seemingly finally found the love of his life and is at peace. He and his fiancee are making millions, have book deals, and get to travel around the world—even if doing so reportedly pisses off their staff. And there’s never been a better time to be a fan of Alabama football as the Tide keep rolling and reloading. Ya thought dual-threat quarterback Jalen Hurts from Texas was awesome as a true freshman last year? We’ll add a Tua Tagovailoa from Hawaii this year!
Why in the world would Scarborough give up that life in two years and run for president when 1) he has no path to victory and 2) his family and Brzezinski’s will be bombarded with reporters digging into their pasts while those on online message boards—like the ones who absolutely and deservedly tore Cillizza to shreds—will inevitably talk about a former intern?
Further, why would Scarborough subject his and Brzezinski’s fragile egos to the realization that working-class Americans who live outside of the Manhattan-D.C. bubbles—where they are adored by media elites—just may not like the couple? Would the high-maintenance and image-obsessed couple be able to handle that potential rude awakening?
Yet, for some reason, Cillizza, who could not even come up with an original name for his newsletter, felt compelled to write a “serious” piece floating a potential Scarborough 2020 presidential candidacy.
Either Cillizza is a complete dunce or he just wants to suck up to Scarborough so he can, in case CNN starts tanking even more, secure himself a place in the ultimate Morning Joe “safe space” for dimwitted and out-of-touch media elites who get awed by useless red-hot takes and swoon over incurious “thinkers” and “influencers” who parrot conventional wisdom and have mastered the art of sounding or tweeting “smart” without saying anything remotely of substance.
In either scenario, CNN’s Cillizza doesn’t emerge looking good at all.
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