re: #91 Targetpractice

Exactly. And efforts to run away from that by taking refuge in the far-right just makes him even less desirable to moderate voters. Yet you can be sure that he’ll at least flirt with a run at the brass ring by selling his heritage…or at least the version of his heritage that sounds better than “My parents left Cuba because they wanted to make more money in America.”

He’s young. So at this point, he may be thinking more about shoring up his conservative bona fides in FL to prevent a TP primary challenge over his immigration heresy. Which would put him in a better position to run years from now, when immigration will hopefully have blown over as a toxic issue.

Same thing might be true for Christie…he’s still relatively young and his more moderate positions may be more saleable down the line…and the images of his “treasonous” embrace of Obama may fade a bit from GOP memories. If the GOP fever ever breaks, he’d be in much better shape to get the nod without being battered during the primaries. Problem for a guy like Christie is that if he runs now, he either has to pull a Romney and insincerely pivot far right to get the nod, OR try to convince the GOP faithful to be excited about someone who’s not a doctrinaire far right religious conservative. He’s skilled, but I’m not sure he can pull off that near magic act.