Gov. Rick Scott just spent four years as one of America's most deeply unpopular elected officials. Thanks to his days running a firm that earned the largest fine in U.S. history for Medicare fraud, he has skeletons in his closet that would make Hannibal Lecter flinch. He had to blow through $1,200 a minute every single day before this month's election to squeak past a turncoat Republican by a single percentage point. He looks like a Scooby-Doo villain.
All of which adds up to the perfect candidate to make a run for the White House. That's what a few Florida Republicans think, at least.
Take it from Joe Gruters, the chairman of Sarasota County's Republicans, who swears he's heard from other GOP loyalists hoping Scott would consider throwing his name into the hat.
"Don't count Scott out of running for president," Gruters tells the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
The Herald-Tribune runs down a list of reasons why Scott should merit a look by national Republicans, but they all basically boil down to the fact that he's won two statewide elections in Florida and the GOP is desperate to get back the electoral votes from a huge swing state that's gone blue the past two presidential elections.
In reality, of course, this is just as stupid an idea as the last time it came up, just before the 2011 primaries.
Scott has a charisma deficit that makes A-Rod look like Jon Hamm. His Medicare-fraud-tainted past would explode on a national-scale campaign. And unlike his races for Florida, even Scott's vast personal fortune wouldn't be enough to topple his opponents through brute spending.
Of course, there's also the small matter of Scott's answer to the Herald-Tribune's question of whether he'd consider a run: "No, I just got elected to be the governor for four more years."
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