Joe Manchin for president. No, really.
Manchin may be the only senator in history who can't see his own path to the White House.
The latest piece I’ve written has gotten what is I think my favorite reader reactions yet, and they’re broken into three camps:
That was super smart, wow
That was just plain weird. Are you ok?
It’s a piece that argues that if Manchin wanted it, and could see it, he actually has a path straight to the White House, but he’s too blinkered by the politics of coal and austerity to see it.
Here’s the story: Joe Manchin for President.
I’m curious what you think. Normally the comments are only open to subscribers but I’ll open them to everybody for this one. Or just reply to this email.
It is an astute observation. Of course the difference between Johnson and Manchin is that Johnson saw politics as his source of power and used it however best to enhance his own power, no other principle got in his way. Manchin sees coal/fossil fuels and big business as his source of power and politics as merely a tool to maintain that source of power. He is incapable of overcoming that self limited, grasping self-interested perspective. They are equally moral midgets, but at least in Johnson's case the U.S. benefited from the conundrum of power, whereas with Manchin it appears the corruption of power will not result in any fortunate historical turn, just deeper destruction of the Republic and the world.
Manchin is the coal-ill-ition politician. With a black heart he mines his wealthy patrons.