Sen. Joe Manchin, behave.
Perhaps you’ve heard the rumor that Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who made his name by driving his party crazy on close votes, is now possibly running for president. Sort of.
“If I get in a race, I’m going to win,” he predicted at an appearance in New Hampshire this week. “With that being said, I haven’t made a decision.”
A crowd had packed the auditorium, straining to hear his every word. Really. A lot of them were undoubtedly drawn not so much by the promise of thrilling rhetoric as by rumors Manchin might announce he was going to be a third-party candidate in 2024.
Didn’t happen. Although Manchin was certainly dropping hints. He appeared onstage with Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor of Utah and former Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman is now one of the public faces of No Labels, a new would-be political party that’s all about being, um, against political parties. No Labels is busy qualifying for the presidential ballot in as many states as possible, and people are wondering if the party’s honchos are planning a Manchin-Huntsman ticket.
Manchin wants you to think of him as a bipartisan voice of moderation, although most of his national fame comes from his willingness to demand favors in return for his vote on the Senate floor.
When it comes to energy, Manchin really wants us to think coal. After all, he’s from West Virginia, which has become seriously Republican, and he could be up for a very tough reelection race next year.
Pop quiz: Manchin not only represents a state that’s big for coal, he built his own considerable fortune on a very profitable coal business. What do you think was key to his success?
A. A long history of getting up at dawn to go work in the mines
B. A doctoral thesis on energy efficiency
C. Trading political favors for business advantages
I know I’m supposed to tell you the answer here, but if you couldn’t figure it out, there’s really no point in our going on together.
Manchin’s current political talents are all about working within the system, even when he’s threatening to take the system down. Does he really believe he could win election to the highest-profile political office on the globe?
You’d like to think no.
But even if the whole effort was hopeless, as a third-party candidate Manchin would get a heck of a lot of attention. And running a losing campaign for president would certainly be a lot more exciting than running a losing campaign for reelection to the Senate.
That spoiler scenario is what’s driving Democrats crazy.
Not gonna work. So he’s playing into the hands of Lieberman and the No Labels crowd instead. There he was at their event, dripping with both-sides-ism, claiming the current miserable state of American politics is coming from “the growing divide in our political parties and the toxic political rhetoric from our elected leaders.”
Let’s stop here for a second and contemplate whether one particular party is actually responsible for this toxicity explosion.
But either way, there are only three possible ways to fight it.
A. Choose a party and work within it to nominate good candidates.
B. Refuse to vote while whining about how terrible the choices are.
C. Rally around a third party and feel quite principled, while helping to draw votes away from the candidate who’s the best real option.
Yeah, Manchin seems to be flirting with C. Which could lead to Donald Trump’s return to the White House. And give the senator from West Virginia a label I can’t mention in a family newspaper.
Gail Collins is a New York Times columnist.