"I said come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now."
The Kingston Trio, 1963. The Youngbloods, 1967
There is a longing in the hearts of a great many people who care about politics. They seek some kind of resolution to the disfunction of Red/Blue tribal politics.
Surely there is something in the middle, some acceptable middle ground in the Venn Diagram of American politics. This group of resolution-seekers hates the partisan conflict. It is exhausting. They see both sides -- indeed multiple sides -- of arguments. Issues aren't black and white. An officeholder in a polity with a majority of voters in the opposite party knows that. Good, earnest citizens disagree with you, and they have points to make, and sometimes good evidence to back up their views. They can be half-right sometimes.
Joe Manchin is America's most conservative Democratic U.S. Senator. He is "Democratic" on some issues: Judicial appointments and Trump's impeachment. He is Republican-friendly on budget cutting, support for coal and fossil fuels, and gun rights.
A committee has already formed to draft a Romney/Manchin presidential ticket. I don't expect a Romney/Manchin joint ticket to take place, but its formation shows that support and money could emerge quickly. Neither man would want second chair. Still, talk of such a unity ticket, while Manchin travels the country making speeches, may cause of viable third-party candidacy to emerge.
Manchin thanked West Virginians then announced he would do what presidential candidates do, start "traveling the country, and speaking out, seeing if there is a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together."
He spoke directly to the camera:
Every incentive in politics in Washington is designed to make our politics extreme. The growing divide between Democrats and Republicans is paralyzing Congress and worsening our problems. The majority of Americans are just plain worn out."
Manchin then went on to list the problems in America -- problems that would sound familiar to Fox News viewers, but here spoken in matter-of fact-tones, not as sneering snipes at a feeble Biden or straw men targets of the left. Manchin cited inflation. Then immigration at the southern border. Then national debt. Then crime and safety. He cited our "critical aid" to allies then warned of "being pulled into a major war ourselves."
Those are, indeed, serious issues. Democrats know that. Manchin went on:
These are not Republican or Democratic challenges. These are American challenges. . . . I know our country isn't as divided as Washington wants us to believe. We share common values, of family, freedom, democracy, dignity, and a belief that together we can overcome any challenge.
These comments do not split the difference between Trump and Biden. They sound like Biden. Biden summarizes his speeches with words of unity. America can do anything if we do it together, Biden says. The Republican message is different. America is in crisis. America is carnage. America is in decline. Biden says that Trump attempts to change our system of government. Trump says darned right he will change it, better and faster this time, because it is corrupted by deep state enemies in the Democratic Party, among RINOs, and among career federal employees. He plans retribution, and is proud of it.
My experience with a conservative third party effort in the 2022 Oregon gubernatorial race makes me think a third-party run by Manchin will fizzle and die. Oregon voters had a Manchin-like alternative candidate in the form of long-time Democrat Betsy Johnson who ran as an Independent. She is pro-choice and she opposed the Trump overthrow of the 2020 election -- Democratic litmus tests. She is pro-gun, pro-timber harvesting, pro-agriculture, pro-rural-Oregon, and gives off a rural populist vibe as she criticized politics in Portland. And -- as would Manchin -- she had access to enormous amounts of money from people who are traditionally Republican donors.
Early polls showed her being popular, but then it faded. Voters realized that a vote for Johnson helped the Republican candidate for governor. The Republican candidate did not condemn Trump, so she was tarred by the Trump-ist GOP election-denying brand.
Meanwhile Republican partisans could not get past the fact that Johnson said the election was not stolen and that Johnson favored abortion rights. She may sound like a rough, rural, no-nonsense populist, but she failed the GOP litmus tests.
Betsy Johnson was politically homeless. So will be Manchin. We have seen that GOP voters do not tolerate criticism of Trump. It is a deal killer for them. Trump is the over-riding issue for Democrats. Trump will stay in the news saying wild things, and that is a Democratic turnout motivator. "A vote for Manchin gets us Trump" will be a strong message.
Let's see if Manchin runs a write-in campaign in New Hampshire. It is too late to get onto the ballot there, but it is not too late to make a point that Americans want political peace. Insofar as Manchin spreads the message of political peace, this helps Biden.
Compared to Trump, Biden is the peacemaker.
Will never forgive the coal baron for not supporting his own party's president. His only interest has been his own wealth while W.Va. is filled with poor people.