Announcing his next move, Manchin said that he’ll be “traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle.” It sounds an awful lot like he may have taken the ghouls at No Labels up on their bid to court him as a third party presidential candidate for 2024; the centrist group (which could easily hand the next election to Trump) is one of his biggest donors, after all. What might have just been a Senate seat lost to Republicans might now become an unimaginably grating spoiler campaign that primarily benefits corporate funders.
Manchin’s a good mark for that kind of thing: He’s a fame-hungry rich guy who would rather spend a few lucrative months in the spotlight than actually campaigning. He won’t win and therefore won’t need to go through the trouble of being president. There’s an easy life awaiting him on the other side—a visiting fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, perhaps, or a board seat at ExxonMobil. Maybe both.
Joe Manchin isn’t particularly interesting or smart, and the world would be a better place if he had never run for office.