For the past several months, we’ve heard a lot about Joe Scarborough’s blueprint for the Republican Party to get back on track.
The congressman-turned-pundit has been talking about that stuff for years, of course, but it reached a fever pitch last November with the release of his book, “The Right Path.”
“The buzz among GOP insiders is that ‘The Right Path’ has the potential to galvanize conservatives in the way Barry Goldwater’s ‘Conscience of a Conservative’ did half a century ago — especially conservatives ready to return to the winning ways of Ronald Reagan, who is on the cover, shown striding down the White House colonnade,” gushed Politico’s buzz arbiter Mike Allen.
Scarborough talked to TPM about the book, casually suggesting that “Joe Scarborough’s worldview” was in sync with “Ronald Reagan’s worldview and Bill Buckley’s worldview and Margaret Thatcher’s worldview.”
You knew where this was going.
Inevitably, Joe Scarborough’s book tour was viewed as a springboard for Joe Scarborough’s 2016 presidential campaign. A few months after the book’s release, The Daily Caller’s Alex Pappas reported that it’s “widely believed” at MSNBC that Scarborough has presidential aspirations.
Two days after that story ran, Scarborough told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that he “won’t rule anything out.”
All of which brings us to this weekend’s scheduled presidential survey at the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference in New Hampshire, where Scarborough’s name will appear on the ballot alongside the likes of Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and “Morning Joe” hero Chris Christie.
If any of this sounds familiar, it should. Back in 2010, Scarborough was said to be exploring an independent presidential bid with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Then, as now, Scarborough did his part to keep the speculation going.
“We haven’t discussed it directly,” he said at the time. “Have people discussed it in his sphere and in my sphere? I think so.”
