One of Tulsi's colleagues in Congress-- asked me for anonymity inorder to share some thoughts with me about her for DWT. I didn't ask her about Tulsi. She just brought her up on her own after she announced last week that she isn't running for reelection. Below are parts of the conversation that don't give away her identity.She asked me to read this Igor Derysh piece at Salon about the foolish speculation that Tulsi may run as a third-party candidate. Last month I told you that Tulsi wasn't going to run for her House seat and that she's running for governor of Hawaii in 2022. People though I made it up; I didn't. And I can yell you as categorically that anyone talking about her running as a third party candidate is talking out of their ass. She isn't going to. Not under any circumstance. She wants to be president-- and is sure she will be-- and knows running as a third party candidate will give her as much a chance as ever becoming president as Jill Stein has. Being governor, on the other hand, would help.My friend the congresswoman said that she thinks that "what’s happening is that she realizes that she can always run for Governor or Senator after this, but not if she’s defeated for her House seat. It’s also possible, however, that being the undercard at all of those Sanders rallies three years ago just went to her head, and she really thinks that she ought to be President."No, she didn't need that. She was raised inside a bizarre cult by people who drilled it into her head that she would be president. Ever step she makes, every breath she takes is in furtherance of that inevitability."I don’t think that that’s going to work well for her," my friend replied. "She’s not Japanese or Filipino. Being a female combat veteran can get you elected to Congress, because no one really cares who represents them in Congress (and most people can’t even name their Member of Congress). But there are a huge number of special interests who care greatly who is Governor, especially in Hawaii (where the state government pretty much runs the state). Those special interests are going to back a compliant Japanese or Filipino candidate, to take advantage of the identity politics."We had some back and forth about Hawaiian politics at that point and then she continued: "At some point, someone will check and see how many times she actually went back to Hawaii from DC during her terms in Congress. And someone else, someone besides you, will write about her and Michael Grimm. And someone else will write about her ties to Hindu extremist groups woven into her fundraising network. I actually think that she has come close to being what the country needs: a public critic of the military-industrial complex and endless military intervention. We spend billions of dollars bombing the crap out of people in countries that our idiot President couldn’t find on a globe, even if all the country names were on it, since he can’t read. But her level of self-absorption is so high that when she actually makes some useful point in that regard, it’s as though she’s emerging from a dream state."I spoke with a friend of mine who's in the state legislature in Honolulu and follows Tulsi closely-- and warily. He agrees that the whole craziness last week isn't going to help her political ambitions. "Tulsi is in a no-win situation," he told me this morning. "If she stays in Congress, she'll continue to face withering criticism of her missed votes and lack of attention to her district from Kai Kahele, who had a real chance to defeat her in the primary. By giving up her seat, she blunts those attacks, but makes it much harder to get back into office by, for example, running for governor in 2022. Hawaii requires 70 percent of donations to a state candidate to come from in state, which means she'd no longer be able to rely primarily on her mainland Hindu nationalist donor base. Being out of office means the establishment support will dwindle. Last but not least, there are many well-known candidates already running, including Lt. Gov. Josh Green, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, former State Senator Jill Tokuda, and potentially state Senator Kai Kahele, even if he wins the 2020 congressional race. Tulsi would be far from the favorite in the 2022 gubernatorial race."
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