With Sen. Rand Paul leading in GOP Presidential Polls, most of the usual suspects are in the GOP presidential race. More than a week ago, Grover Norquist named Governor Scott Walker as the ‘Most Worthy’ Republican Presidential candidate.
Presidential races usually have a few surprises, and one just popped up. This man has not been seen outside of MSNBC’s tiny viewing audience in the past few years.
MSNBC host and former Rep. Joe Scarborough, in a speech before a wildly enthusiastic New Hampshire crowd last weekend, strongly hinted that he may be considering a presidential bid in 2016.
Scarborough was a Republican representative in House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s conservative revolution of the 1990s. He represented a northern Florida district in the U.S. House 20 years ago. At the Northeast Republican Conference (NERC) in Nashua, N.H., last week, he said, “We don’t need to elect another Clinton for eight years.”
Scarborough authored a bestselling book, “The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics – and Can Again.” Scarborough contends Republicans must “re-embrace the principled pragmatism of Ronald Reagan,” so they can reach out to independent and Democratic voters to create a new political majority.
Jennifer Horn, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said that the Northeast Republican Conference has held a number of forums recently, and Scarborough’s speech was “extremely well received.”
Joe Scarborough’s View On How To Win
Scarborough has an interesting and different view on what it will take for Republicans to win and hold the White House. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, a frequent panelist on Scarborough’s “Morning Joe,” program, recently interviewed Scarborough. Later, se recalled, “Joe has a resonant message about how Republicans only win the White House when their candidates are conservative ideologically and moderate temperamentally. If the GOP wants to master politics again, it needs this kind of bracing thinking.”
Scarbourgh’s message also resonates with many older political hands. His political strategists also noted that his brand may resonate well in New Hampshire, with independent-thinking Republicans. If he can do well in New Hampshire, the first primary state, he could use his MSNBC platform to help raise awareness.
On Friday, Republican political strategist Ron Christie, talking about fundraising, told Newsmax that Joe Scarborough would “have the ability to raise the money and to use the platform that he has on his show on ‘Morning Joe’ on MSNBC to get a lot of people to pay attention to him.”
