Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Howard Schultz

Schultz is getting eviscerated for the tone deaf launch to his "campaign."  People have noted that former McCain aid, Steve Schmidt, is behind it.  The common wisdom is that Schultz will siphon votes from the anti-Trump camp and make it easier for him to get re-elected.

I'm wondering if Schmidt is trying to do one of two things.

First, could he be thinking that Schultz could split the right of center vote, making it easier for a Democrat to win a plurality.  I think that misses the tenor of the electorate right now.  All those suburban Republicans who flipped to Democrat last November will absolutely vote against Trump in 2020, in ways that Schmidt doesn't seem to get.

Second, and more likely, is that Schmidt is trying to create a lifeboat for what he remembers as the Republican party.  Schultz represents that noblesse oblige, patrician billionaire wing that Schmidt wants to resurrect.  If so, he's a cycle too early.

Of course the third possibility is that Schmidt is simply trying to make a shitton of money off Schultz while he can.

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