Back in 2010, MSNBC presenter and "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough told his television colleagues that he was "irritated" at a Huffington Post story that suggested he might undertake a 2012 campaign as the bottom part of a Mike Bloomberg presidential ticket. (This would have been on the ballot line of the "Polite Centrists For Unregulated Derivatives Trading And Gutting The New Deal Party" or something.) Per Scarborough:
"There is nothing to this. They say somebody very close to they mayor says I want to be vice president. That's a joke. Nobody that has worked with me who is a lawyer, nobody that's worked with me in media, nobody that's worked with me in Congress would ever say, 'You know who I think would make a great vice president? Joe Scarborough.' Seriously? Seriously? ... I could not have been more unequivocal."
Flash forward to today, and things are getting a little more ambitious and a little less unequivocal. Per Politico:
Asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt if he had ruled out running for president, Scarborough said he "won't rule anything out" and later added, "we'll see what happens."
"No, I won't rule anything out. I've always said and I've always been open about the fact that the greatest job I ever had and the greatest honor I've ever had was being in the House of Representatives," the former Florida congressman said. "It was an absolute thrill and I had to get out because I had young children to raise and I wanted to be back home in Pensacola. No, I've always said I wanted to get back in. It's just a matter of time. We'll see what happens."
Here's what's going to happen: Joe Scarborough will not run for president, the end. Sure, there may have been a time when Scarborough could be tempted into doing all the work needed to set up a presidential campaign, but he's been moving in an entirely different career direction for years -- away from electoral politics and toward Thought Leadership.
Which is in many ways too bad. Americans have a lot of means at their disposal to shoot down someone's presidential ambitions, but Thought Leaders are like black mold -- we'll be stuck with them until we burn the whole house down.
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