May 7, 2018--Prediciton

If you follow these, you know I occasionally like to make predictions. Occasionally, one pans out. Like the disappearance of first son-in-law, Jared Kushner. If you've spotted him lately, please let me know so I can correct my scorecard of speculations. 

Here's a new one inspired by last week's coverage of Rudy Giuliani's blanket appearances on Fox News' Sean Hannity Show and the inane Fox & Friends--

Joe Scarborough is running for president. Of the United States. 

The Joe of MSNBC's Morning Joe, an island generally of sanity and civility in the early morning wasteland of network and cable TV.

You may rightfully wonder how these seemingly unrelated pieces fit together. 

It is the result of the confluence of Scarborough's decline in influence (MJ used to be the go-to place for media and Washington insiders) with the resulting frustration he is feeling as Trump and his people, since moving into the White House have iced him out. During the 2016 campaign Trump appeared on or called into MJ almost every day, but now Joe is being ignored because he is too relentlessly critical of all things Trump and because he recently turned 55, the time in life when many ask "Is this all there is"?

His answer to that existential question, I am predicting, is ,"No, there's more. In fact, that more is the presidency."

If as I you watch MJ you may have noticed that Scarborough these days rarely appears on the set in either New York or Washington. He is patched in and on screen looks as if he is broadcasting from a basement bunker in his Connecticut home.

I suspect he is putting the finishing touches on a book about his vision for America's future and doesn't want to spend any time distracted by commuting or doing all the extra-ealry morning prep work being fully engaged with the program would require. 

More and more he is leaving the hosting to Willie Geist and his fiancée, Mika Brzezinski, which leaves him with the time and money--he reportedly earns $5.0 million a year to host MJ--required to write his manifesto and begin the process of putting the pieces together for a presidential campaign. 

With Mika, the daughter of Washington royalty, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, about to become his third or fourth wife he has in her the perfect potential First Lady. He's from the déclassé Florida Panhandle (the "Redneck Rivera") and by marrying her and into her family history he will be koshered enough to be taken seriously as presidential material. Not that he doesn't have numerous potential presidential qualities of his own.

As an anti-Trump semi-lapsed Republican he could try for the Democratic nomination, independent style like Bernie Sanders, or seek to oust Trump during the 2020 primaries. He could be the class in either field. 

A practicing Baptist, gun-owning, small government, fiscally responsible libertarian who believes in gun control he may fit the mood of the times. It doesn't hurt that he's tall, boyishly handsome, with a full head of hair (to my father a presidential prerequisite) and is fluent in the various languages of the social media.

He's ready and maybe much of America would also be. It could get interesting. 

Next First Family?