Yes, I am projecting again - but not from my "notions":
Democratic strategist James Carville believes two-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney will go for a third try in 2016, even though the 2012 GOP nominee has said he won't seek the nation's top office again.
Um, why?
"He's run for president twice. I once noted that running for president was like having sex: No one did it once and forgot about it," Carville said Thursday on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."
Well, hell, Serpenthead, we already knew that Bill Clinton would like to run again, but it's a smidgeon late for him at this point. Do you really think that analogy fits Mitt?
Romney said on Tuesday's Hugh Hewitt radio show that "circumstances can change," and put him back in the field. He far outpaced other names in a recent poll of Republicans in Iowa.
That's name recognition, not candidate preference.
"A lot of people who looked promising have sort of faded," Carville said.
Nobody has "faded" because the race hasn't started, and won't for several months yet. Remember "six months is an eternity in politics"? And you call yourself a political consultant?
"Romney would be a classic Republican nominee. They always tend to go with the old, experienced white guy. And he's the old, experienced white guy right now."
Yes, Mitt was a classic Republican nominee: old, experienced, white, perceived as too moderate by the base, and lost when they stupidly stayed home on Election Day. It's also true that the Republican Party has only given one candidate multiple bites at the general election apple since World War II - Richard Nixon - and his second run in 1968 was such a classic "inevitability" campaign that no significant GOP primary opposition ever arose against him. And it's not as if the party had any kind of "talent bench" to speak of back then anyway. It was pretty much go with Tricky Dick or let Hubert Humphrey run unopposed. With Governors Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and my guy Scott Walker - all of them obviously feared by the Democrats or they wouldn't have all already been the targets of the Donk smear machine - the Republicans have a wealth of executive talent to field, any one of which would, in a sane world, be the prohibitive 2016 general election favorite. What need is there, then, for (sorry, Mitt) a two-time loser?
Also, if you'll recall, it's the GOP tradition to nominate the "next in line," whosever "turn" it is, and in 2016 that's Rick Santorum. Either way, assuming Barack Obama leaves on January 20th, 2017 - which I don't - the Dems would almost certainly retain the White House. Which helps explain Carville's hint-the-size-of-piano-casings-dropping.
But that's not the end of today's installment of Tea Party teeth-gnashing - and this nugget is real as roast beef:
Chris Wallace doesn't think his Fox News colleague Ben Carson has a chance of winning a presidential race, though he says he would like to see him contribute to the debate.
Wallace was a guest by phone Thursday on St. Louis radio station KFTK's "Allman in the Morning," and was asked about Carson's possible ambitions by host Jamie Allman.
"Do I think he has a serious chance to be president? I don’t. No," Wallace said.
His statement was not intended to be disparaging of Carson, Wallace said, but simply an acknowledgment that Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and current Fox News contributor, has no political experience.
Wallace did admit that many see lack of experience as a plus in politics. But, he added, Carson has never said where he stands on foreign policy or how he would get legislation through Congress.
"We think, 'Well, you don’t really need a professional politician to run the country,'" Wallace said. "To me, it would be like saying we don’t need a professional manager to run General Motors or something."
A certain skill set is needed to be president, Wallace said, comparing Carson being president to putting a senator in an operating room to perform brain surgery. [emphases added]
Not much that needs adding to that. Other, perhaps, than the way I've been phrasing it - namely, that Ben Carson, if he's running for anything, is running for vice president. Given how much the Tea Party base likes Dr. Carson, he would seem to be a running-mate list-topper, especially if Governor Romney let his brains turn to clam sauce, ran again and actually won another nomination. He'd certainly need all the base turnout he could get.
Although if Paul Ryan couldn't drag him over the finish line last time - and the House Budget Committee Chairman doesn't think Mitt will go for the trifecta - could such a quiet, demur, dignified, bookish, non-self-promoter as Ben Carson do that heavy lifting successfully? Remember who constitute the voting majority in this country: low-information voters. And low-information voters like three things above all else: messiahs, entertainment, and free stuff. Romney-Carson would fit that, as with Tea Party desires, like socks on a rooster.
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