This will probably call for many eye rolls because the majority of us on here are informed voters and immediately see huge character defects, an alleged sordid history, and beady eyes when viewing this man but bear with me in this hypothesis below.
From the moment I saw the list of the Republican nominees as it unfolded, this "what are they thinking?" thought began in me and it has only grown with each of the carnivalesque debates we've been forced to sit through. They're going up against one of the smartest and most articulate politicians (and I do not welcome Obama attacks in this diary) of certainly my lifetime and putting up the likes of Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, and Herman Cain? They have to know Romney is easily dispatched despite being able to formulate a sentence, that Newt has way too much nasty baggage, that Santorum is a term in male gay sex, that Ron Paul is a loon, and Huntsmann wouldn't be noticed by Eve if he were Adam.
This is the clown car of the circus, the bunch designed to bring disgust and frustration with the Republican Party which seems self-defeating unless you bring in the possibility of a late term savior.
From what I've observed that savior is going to be Joe Scarborough. With huge name recognition, supposed middle of the class values with well-rehearsed messaging, a sexy "liberal" cohost (which shows he plays good with the other side) he could easily end up dropped into one of the early primaries when it becomes apparent that none of the others stand a snowball's chance in hell of pulling ahead.
And the kicker to this is that Joe (and now Mika) are seeing to it that every time one of the bozos starts to move ahead, they become the target on Morning Joe. Look back at what Joe has been saying (yeah I know it's tough) during each of the times we began to see some growth on one or the other of the candidates and note that there was no real outrage at all from the party elite as he did so. Just a deafening silence.
I hope I'm really off base here because he scares me. The majority of us reel in revulsion at the thought of a slick used car salesman like Scarborough but the majority of us are not who will decide this next election. He has ridden that fine line that has kept him in good graces with the traditionalists of his own party as well as the new tea bag extremists. He I'm sure polls well with Libertarians and centrists. I can even imagine some from the left that are frustrated with the pace of Obama's reign who could hold their nose and vote for Scarborough thinking he's really going to go to bat for them. That's an absurd notion of course but then again I never believed I'd see such vitriol towards a Democratic President on a site like this so nothing surprises me anymore.
Remember that there's a strong religious component to politics on the right and Gingrich right now, the front runner de jour, is being offered up as the latest anti-Christ. The only reason they'd allow that is if they think they can serve up a savior at the last second. The inhabitants here may not buy that image for Scarborough but to that average American voter (the same ones that gave us multiple terms of Bush) Joe probably looks as harmless as Mr. Rogers compared to the others.
I think it would be incumbent upon us to keep a close watch on his morning show and see if this pattern continues and watch for hints that he may be building a clandestine base of support. I could be completely off on this of course but my political intuition has been spot on in recent decades....damn it.