‘Unfit con man’: Ridiculous hypocrite Joe Walsh challenges President Trump for 2020 GOP nomination

Conventional wisdom holds that when a sitting president is running for re-election and faces a challenger from his own party, that president is in trouble. So, of course, the pundits and anti-Trump political activists are thrilled that Joe Walsh, a conservative talk radio host and former Republican congressman, announced his candidacy for the GOP 2020 presidential nomination over the weekend, declaring President Trump “unfit” for office.

It’s true that incumbent presidents who face primary challenges tend to lose re-election. When LBJ faced two strong primary challengers in 1968, he saw the writing on the wall and withdrew his candidacy. Ronald Reagan challenged President Ford in 1976, and though Ford won the primary, he lost the general election. Democrat Ted Kennedy primaried President Carter in 1980, and Carter lost to Reagan. Should President Trump be worried about this one-term congressman with a history of controversial remarks who was a fierce Trump supporter in 2016 but now describes the president as an “unfit con man” who “spews hate virtually every time he opens his mouth”?

In a word, no. Past one-term presidents had credible primary challengers. Trump does not.

Joe Walsh is not a serious candidate for president, and no serious person thinks he has chance to beat Trump. The Joe Walsh most Americans are familiar with played guitar on the 1977 smash Eagles hit "Hotel California." Joe Walsh the politician and radio host is perhaps best known nationally for posting provocative messages on his Twitter account. Some of those more controversial remarks are drawing new scrutiny from the leftist media, because running for president exposes more filth than a colonoscopy. The Washington Post describes Walsh’s past comments with the harshest, most condemning word in the paper’s rhetorical arsenal: “Trumpian.”

All this from a guy who told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos over the weekend that Trump is “nuts,” “erratic,” and “cruel” and that he “stokes bigotry.” And to disarm inevitable accusations of hypocrisy, Walsh apologized for his own tweets and his prior outspoken support for the president.

"I helped create Trump, there's no doubt about that, the personal, ugly politics," he said. "I regret that and I'm sorry for that."

Is this an apology of convenience now that Walsh is running for president? Republican primary voters will decide. But don’t expect Walsh to put a dent in President Trump’s 79 percent approval rating among the GOP loyal by repeating mainstream media talking points about how orange man is bad and says mean things. Walsh has no base of support to launch a challenge to Trump that might be even slightly annoying, let alone viable, using that tactic. The voters who are persuaded by arguments about Trump being a “racist” or Trump encouraging “hate” are voting for the other team. Twenty other people over in that clown car Democratic primary have already said everything Walsh said in his opening salvo against the president, not to mention that’s the narrative force-fed to Americans by the mainstream media every day since Trump announced his candidacy in 2016. Republican voters hate hearing about it, and one more Republican agreeing with the Left’s attacks on Trump won’t persuade any of them.

Walsh and the NeverTrumpers expressing support for the idea of a primary challenge argue Republicans are loyal to Trump mostly because they don’t have an alternative. Walsh’s message fails on its face, because on the one hand he says, “I’m the alternative to a man unfit for office because he constantly says ridiculous things,” and on the other hand, Walsh is someone who is unfit for office because he constantly says ridiculous things.

Who, exactly, is the “unfit con man?”

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