Keller @ Large: Charlie Baker For President Is A Bad Idea

BOSTON (CBS) - There are many things I love about my home state of Massachusetts - the culture, the scenery, the sports, the people. And even the weather - sometimes. But one thing I do not love is the notion that every prominent Massachusetts politician should somehow be thought of and promoted as a potential presidential candidate.

It started in earnest with John F. Kennedy, who inspired generations of local pols to start imagining how they'd redecorate the Oval Office. And over the past thirty years, we've had no less than three major-party nominees from here.

That doesn't even count the also-rans, like the late Paul Tsongas and Ted Kennedy, and the real or imagined wanna-bes like the late Kevin White and former governor Deval Patrick.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. (WBZ-TV)

But I thought when Charlie Baker got elected governor, we might have a brief respite from this seemingly endless Potomac fever. He was too wonky, non-ideological, and with all due respect, uncharismatic to drag us through another presidential campaign. Despite his best-in-the-national gubernatorial approval ratings, we'd never have to suffer through Baker for president talk, right?

Wrong!

In an interview with the Boston Herald, conservative pundit Bill Kristol said Baker would be a heck of a candidate, a "very good model going forward." A Baker spokesman immediately knocked down the idea of Baker 2020, and no wonder. Who in their right mind thinks the party that went for Donald Trump will, four years later, go for his almost diametrical opposite?

So, sorry, Charlie for president daydreamers. Stick to getting him a second term as governor, and ditch the Potomac fever.

Your take is welcome here, via email at keller@wbztv.com, or use Twitter, @kelleratlarge.

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