GOP Clown Car Part 1: Jim Gilmore

  The GOP 2016 started with 17 candidates, but now is down to 15 thanks to implosion of Scott Walker and Rick Perry unable to make people forget what a terrible candidate he was in 2012 even with his fancy smart guy glasses. In reality it is going to come down to handful of people who actually have a shot at getting the nomination, but I have thoughts on all of these guys. With the lowest tier one percent guys I am going to focus more on the why I think they are running and what I think they really want out of this.

  Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, George Pataki, and Lindsey Graham are all running for president, but none of them have even the remotest chance of winning. Jindal is probably the only one of this group that has been considered a contender at any point even if that was a few years ago. I think Jindal and Santorum are running more to keep their profile up for monetary reasons, not sure about Pataki, and Lindsey Graham just likes telling people how much he wants to bomb and fight with countries in the Middle East.

  Then there is the 2016 GOP WTF candidate former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore. At the time he filed there was already 16 other people that were in, but he said what the heck and jumped in anyway. He announced he was in without much fanfare other than maybe who the heck is that guy. At some point he will drop out and will anybody even notice that either? In 2008, he tried to legitimately to run for president, but he couldn't raise enough money and promptly dropped out. This time there seems to be little evidence of an actual campaign. On his Wikipedia page it says little more than he has filed to run for president in 2016. He did not poll well enough to make the kid's table debate in front of the cool airplane at Saint Ronnie Cathedral and he is not even listed in a lot of polling. Stephen Colbert's joke runs at president got more attention than the Gilmore campaign. The Donald has caused problems for several of the other candidates, but how can you do worse than asterisk.

  Overall I would say there are 3 groups of people running. Actually running for president, running for Veep, and those looking to make money on the right wing gravy train. Most of these guys are pretty easy to figure out on this front, but I have no idea why Gilmore is running, what his strategy is, and how long he plans to hang around. The beauty of not really an actual campaign is you don't have to spend much money. Let the other guys run around Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina spending money of staffs, fancy consultants, offices, signs, mailers, and expensive ads. Perhaps he is just waiting for all of these guys to implode and drop out. At that point he will just step and take the nomination. It makes about as much sense as what Jindal, Santorum, Pataki, and Graham are doing. Two down fourteen more to go.