Grandma's House

I watched Tucker Carlson Unfiltered on PBS tonight (something I don't usually do) while I was fixing dinner, and it became clear to me that Paul Begala probably won't be working on Hillary's campaign, at least in any major way. They were discussing the election, and then the conversation veered toward the next election in 2008:

Begala: I don't know, President Bush, I tend to be liberal on immigration. I kind of like that President Bush has made a few moves to try to liberalize the immigration laws. They were defeated very quickly. I like the fact that the Democrats are largely in support of it. You are right. Analytical matter if I were completely amoral and constructing a candidate to run, I would either take them from the right or left, who cares, and give them a very sort of negative first message I would put immigration at the heart of that. There is a strong sense in the country, you are right, that immigration is getting out of control and somehow that's hurting our jobs. Someone will emerge as the post-Bush leader of the Republican right, and somebody will emerge as the post-Clinton, Kerry leader of the Democratic Party.

Carlson: Who is that person? You are in a position to make a good guess.

Begala: I don't know. I would look outside of Washington. One of Senator Kerry's problems was he's a senator. He cast 10,000 votes. So he of course had been on both sides of every issue. I watched Bill Clinton run against Bob Dole who had been on both sides of every issue, too. That's what Senators do. I would look outside of Washington. I would look somewhere in one of those red states. The only --

Carlson: Basically you are endorsing Bill Richardson.

Begala: He's a lovely man. The only guys -- People in my party who have won the White House in my lifetime were southerners. And I'm not a young man anymore. I think the Democrats have to find a way to come back and speak to southerners, speak to midwesterners. A lot will be reassessing the cultural elitism.

Doesn't sound like he thinks Hillary should be the next candidate, does it?