Go My Team!

Tim F. over at Balloon Juice exhibits a fine bit of reflexive anti-Republican my-team-ism in this post. He links to this John Fund piece about Rudy Giuliani's propensity to take telephone calls from his wife in the middle of speeches. On the merits I agree with Tim (and John Fund) that this is really rude, and also a bit weird. If Rudy is this rude to people, and has this sense of entitlement now, it's hard to imagine how he'd behave if he were actually elected President of the United States. Given how much kowtowing the President gets, actually being elected could push Rudy to James Bond movie-villain level megalomania.

Tim seems to think that Rudy will end up being a weak candidate because he is so personally unlikable. On that I agree with him. But what struck me about Tim's post was this comment:

On the downside, if Giuliani self-destructs too soon he could put the race within reach of a real candidate like Huckabee. Go Rudy go.

Tim seems to be saying that he wants Rudy to be the candidate precisely because he will be a weak candidate. This, to me, is an example of a rather desctructive my-teamism.

Whoever he turns out to be, the Republican candidate will have some chance at winning the general election. Maybe not a big chance, but some. As an American, it seems to me that you should root for both parties to nominate the person who you believe would make the best President. Maybe not the best candidate, but the best President.

The same would be true of die-hard Republicans -- they should want the Democratic Party to nominate the individual whom they believe would make the best President, if elected. It's fine to be mad at Republicans -- I am pretty annoyed with them myself, these days. But the polity is healthier when both parties field strong candidates.