Over at the Daily Caller, Alex Pappas has a story about Joe Scarborough possibly considering a 2016 run. I find this very interesting. I’ve had several encounters lately with Christians in politics and they really like Joe — all of them.You guys should know Joe is a friend of mine and not in the Washington sense of the word “friend,” but in the actual sense. We have been for a while. I often feel caught in the middle among friends, some of whom like him and some of whom do not. But we’ve known each other for a while, see each other occasionally to catch up, and text smack to each other during SEC Season — the rest of you call that football season.In any event, seeing Joe navigate a 2016 primary fight with most of talk radio taking aim at him, along with a lot of others, would be something to see. I think conservatives with a natural and understandable reaction that he’s from MSNBC and can’t be trusted might be taken off guard. I wouldn’t be dismissive of him. Like Herman Cain thriving in debates in 2012, Joe is on television three hours a day. I can tell you from the Oxford Union debate in November than all the time on talk radio made me far more prepared for debate than law school, etc.Additionally, I think some people might be surprised by how pro-life Joe is. He rose in prominence before his congressional campaign for defending a man in court who had killed an abortion doctor. Then Joe ran for Congress and the GOP establishment in Washington backed a Democrat turned Republican convert over Joe. Newt Gingrich believed Joe was too conservative for the district, but he won.Most surprisingly, Joe has continued his opposition of Medicare Part D and the expanding leviathan under Republicans and Democrats. Look, this is a guy who as a 29 year old rookie with no money, no name ID, no experience, and no connections got 60% of the vote in his congressional district, became the first Republican in 100 years to win it, and did so with the national establishment lined up against him. And now, being on MSNBC, he’s reassuring to all the guys who touted Christie, a lot of the GOP in DC, and is a friend to a lot of evangelicals who’ll be influential out of the gate.I wouldn’t dismiss him out of hand, given all that.I’m very intrigued to see this shake up over the next few years — if he even decides to do it. We’re already going to have a great slate of primary candidates from Walker to Jindal to Cruz to Paul to Rubio to maybe Pence and others. That’s a deep bench already. Joe would have to overcome some presumptions about him, neutralize a lot of people who would be deeply suspicious of him based on where he works and who would be most likely to support him, and convince people in general that a guy who has been on TV, a congressman, and a lawyer is qualified for the job.As Alex notes in his article:

There are just as many hurdles for Scarborough that would likely be turnoffs in a Republican nominating contest: His show represents the thinking of the Washington and New York political elite. He works for a liberal news network. He’s been divorced twice. He resigned from Congress.

Well, there goes my plans to refrain from writing about 2016 until after November 2014.