The Alarming Disappearance Of Debt Concern

Howard Schultz is right about the debt. Too bad no one will listen to him.

Now, there are plenty of good reasons to summarily dismiss a possible presidential run by the former Starbucks boss. Let’s start with the biggie: This political novice has no natural home in either major party. Democrats have moved even further left since 2016  when the moderate Schultz was supposedly mulling a challenge to Hillary Clinton. But Schultz doesn’t seem to have drifted leftward at all. He eyerolls the idea of single-payer health care, for instance, and stiff arms journalists when they try to describe him as a liberal, preferring “centrist.”

What’s more, Schultz is a pretty low-key dude — President Trump might even call him “low energy” if they ever faced off in a debate — when Democrats are going to want a candidate ready to hit Trump hard. (Maybe literally.) They’re looking for a triple shot of espresso from their candidate, not a cup of green tea.

The politics of an independent run don’t look much better, even if Schultz spends a good chunk of his coffee-hawking fortune. Maybe one in 10 voters really plays it down the middle, leaning neither Democrat nor Republican. And while the billionaire businessman might offer an escape route for conservative NeverTrumpers disgusted with the GOP’s current billionaire businessman leader, there really aren’t that many of them. Nearly 90 percent of Republicans approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president.