Phil Scott

the incumbent republican Governor of Vermont, is actually ginnin' up Charlie Baker as a GOP challenger to Donald Trump in next year's presidential primaries.
Apparently Charlie is still The Most Popular Governor in the Country...And Governor Scott thinks that might prove to be leverage over Donald Trump.
Nothing could be further from the Truth, The President still has toxically high approval ratings among the GOP base, exactly how a Phil Scott, Bill Weld or a Charlie Baker is supposed to do business in a GOP Primary under those circumstances is a mystery to me.
Moreover, Charlie looks great on paper, in reality he is an even bigger fatuous bore than Mike Pence with a curiously irritating sing-song delivery, MBTA commutes have gotten longer and more uncertain under his administration and the Massachusetts State Police are hemorrhaging federal indictments.
And then there is his kinky devotion to Charter Schools, a malign rightical chic fad that he thinks can quite literally cure gunshot wounds.
No, Charlie won't get in, he is too equivocal to even endorse his old boss Bill Weld, no Baker will make the same old helpless noises and keep his head down all next year, worked like a charm in 2016 after all.
You have to understand something, to confront Trump in a GOP Primary, you have to have something of a "heroic mood" (to quote Theodore Roosevelt) and that requires a willingness to sacrifice, take chances risk annihilation.  Phill Scott, John Kasich or Charlie Baker just aren't "Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden" type politicians.  They believe in small government and low taxes and narrow minded judges, the conservative echo chamber that nurtured them gave them little by which to resist a shopworn would be tyrant like Donald Trump.  As long as they aren't being attacked, they think they can wait this cyclone out, they may bleat piteously when backed into a corner, back that is it, don't ask for more.