A Biden-Romney Centrist Fantasy Ticket So Ain't Happening
5:56 P.M.
By Ed Kilgore
As should be apparent by now, Donald Trump’s election in 2016 convinced a lot of people that absolutely anything in presidential politics is now possible. That includes really strange things like a candidacy for the lawyer of a porn star who’s suing the current incumbent; a Democratic field that includes multiple preening billionaires; and all sorts of unlikely scenarios involving GOP primary challenges to the figure who stands athwart his party like a colossus. So it’s no big surprise that the Trump era is producing a revival of the ancient fantasy of a centrist third-party ticket that will sweep away the warring tribes of left and right and elevate a Government of National Salvation that will do serious adult things like cutting Social Security benefits.
The latest version of this fantasy comes to us from the imagination of Juleanna Glover, a veteran Republican campaign operative who appears to have ascended into the stratosphere of Beltway insiders who form bipartisan lobbying shops and fête each other in the cramped and self-regarding Washington social scene (better known as the site of the legendary Georgetown cocktail parties where all the sharp edges of politics are softened). To her credit, Glover isn’t promoting some abstract third party of sensible centrists, but a very specific 2020 coalition to be led by Joe Biden:
The Democratic primary is shaping up to be cacophonous and chaotic. Biden should capitalize on his status as one of America’s most popular politicians, skip the risk and potential indignities of running and losing in what will be a vicious and mulish, leftward-lurching primary, and slingshot straight to the general election debate stage on a third-party ticket.
Her model is the hypothetical 2008 McCain-Lieberman ticket that the late Arizonan regretted not insisting upon. Glover doesn’t mention that this failed to happen not because McCain didn’t pursue it but because he was reliably informed it would have turned his nominating convention into a seething snake pit of recriminations. But let’s put that aside for a moment and let her riff:
Biden could run as the major third-party candidate with a principled conservative by his side (Lieberman, a one-time Democrat, technically categorized himself as an independent at the time McCain ran for president). A number of Republicans stand out: Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, outgoing Ohio Gov. John Kasich and newly minted Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
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http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/a-biden-romney-fantasy-ticket-so-aint-happening.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
for some republicans panic seems to be setting in. The words principled and conservative don't belong on the same page and certainly not in the same sentence. 
