Schmidt is still a republican and cannot be fully trusted

Schmidt has officially left the Republican Party. He seems to wear his disavowing it as a badge of honor.

...and he will happily rejoin the Republicans once Trump is no longer its face.

He spent his career getting Republicans elected by building the rageaholic Republican base to give margin of victory to conservative Republicans. Trump's drag-racing on a road Schmidt and others like him built.

The NeverTrumper motto might as well be "Make Dogwhistles Great Again".

and he is being significantly ratio'd about his prospect of running.

Here's is "announcement" tweet...

Link to tweet

And a reminder, just because someone is a "Never Trump" republican (I've appreciated Steve Schmidt's vocal disapproval of Trump), they are still a republican. (Yes, I know Schmidt is now an "independent", but old habits die hard.)

They want to claim they are reformed or something because they are no longer 'officially' a Repub, but they seem to vote that way.

So this Schultz guy is running as a spoiler but he's declaring so early that he's likely to flame-out in a hurry. If he is exposed as a jerk early on, saves us the headache of having him in the way later.

which is exactly how Schmidt describes Trump, than he in good faith can not do anything to encourage an Independent to run in 2020, and must instead strongly oppose that.

I get that Schmidt is not and never has been a Democrat, so he has no loyalty of even any affinity with the Democratic Party. Why should he? At this point he likely is among those who feel that America needs a new centrist political party. We've been through these debates as a nation before, when Colin Powell was being urged to start a third party or run as an Independent, and of course when Ross Perot begat the Reform Party, to name two recent instances. Bloomberg too almost went there before. The difference is that no one was literally afraid that the White House was being occupied by a traitor back then, or believed that the then President was corrupt and incompetent to the core, or that America had somehow turned the bully pulpit over to a hard crore White Nationalist preaching hate.

Taken at his word, Schmidt believes our nation faces an existential crisis in the Trump presidency. If so then no chance can be taken that could increase the likelihood that Trump can somehow slip into a second term, the way LePage did, holding on as Maine's Governor in a three person race. Priority One must be to rid our body politic of Donald Trump. After that we can all get back to arguing over policies and priorities.

If it is impotent enough to him, Schmidt can begin the quest to create a centrist political force in America again in January of 2021. There is always a billionaire or two lying around ready and willing to run for President. But not until after election day 2020.

Link to tweet