Joe Manchin, the Senate’s worst Democrat, announced recently that he won’t be running for re-election. Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily he’s going to let us live in peace, as he’s already teasing the idea of a presidential run.
There was already speculation that Manchin might be considering a 2024 run. Then Manchin appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press this week and host Kristen Welker asked him repeatedly if he was considering the move. Eventually, he said yes. Actually, he said “absolutely,” which is just poison to my ears.
“I will do anything I can to help my country, and you’re saying, ‘Does that mean you would consider [running for president]?’ Absolutely,” Manchin said. “Every American should consider it if they’re in a position to help save the country.”
This is ridiculous, of course, because Manchin has never given any indication whatsoever that he cares about “helping the country”—or about anything at all beyond using his power and influence to boost his profile, his ego, and his financial portfolio.
So what does Manchin think he’d be contributing to this race? The big thing he’s jazzed up about is his desire to “reinvigorate” the centrist middle.
“I would do everything in my power to make sure, to mobilize that moderate, sensible, commonsense middle,” he tells Welker. (Please, try to contain your excitement.)
Manchin seems to truly believe that Biden—who was one of the least progressive Democratic candidates in 2020 and was elected as a “safe” and moderate choice out of fear of Trump’s re-election—has been “pushed too far to the left.” Obviously, diehard centrists (if that’s even a thing) are the only people who are going to vote for him.
If he ran as an independent, Manchin could actually siphon off some votes from Republicans who don’t want to see Trump re-elected but he’d pose an equal threat to Biden. And no matter who he hurts most, there’s no way he could actually win. Young people are a much more important voting demographic than the “commonsense middle” and given Joe Manchin’s position as a climate obstructionist in the pocket of Big Coal, he’d be hard-pressed to find any support at all there.
Please, Joe Manchin, go take whatever corporate lobbying job or cushy MSNBC commentator position you want and let us just ignore you in peace.
(featured image: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
