When it was announced that Rick Perry was "suspending" (i.e., ending) his campaign for the White House, Rand Paul put up an interesting tweet. Paul wrote, "What does it say about Republicans when a three-and-a-half-term governor with a successful record of creating jobs bows out, as a reality star leads in the polls?"
I'll tell you what it says. It says that at the moment, the Republicans who are responding to opinion polls — who may or may not reflect the ones who'll actually go to the real polls whenever we get to that stage of this election — really want to win. They want to look at the Oval Office and see Their Guy, no matter who Their Guy is.
They have plenty of time before the actual voting to decide who might actually do a good job running the country. Right now, they can say anyone for any reason.
The Senator from Kentucky might have also noted that not only is a reality star leading in the polls but the runner-up at the moment is another guy who's never served one day in any elected office. I can't even begin to explain Ben Carson's popularity except maybe that within the "We'll take anyone who isn't a traditional politician" mob, there's a large group of folks who think, "We'll take anyone who isn't a traditional politician but we draw the line at Trump."
And I have no particular feeling about whether I do or do not want to see Joe Biden enter the race…or whether he will or not. I do have one acquaintance who I think would love it because deep down, what he really wants is the Barack Obama administration but from a leader who's old, white and male.