The recent polls that show Trump winning over Joe Biden may not be accurate when all is said and done but they sure do have the Democrats unnerved. It’s as though they see everything slipping away from them. All that power, that glorious power, just may shift into Republican control.

One Democrat who saw the writing on the wall was Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia. He realized he would not win re-election to the Senate seat he has held since 2010. Manchin is the only Democrat elected to a statewide office in very red West Virginia. The problem is that Manchin won’t just move on. He is determined to pretend he is very important to the political process and he is flirting with a third-party run. He’s coy and says he doesn’t have plans to run for president but he’ll do what he can to save America. The man has quite an ego.

No Labels is recruiting him as a candidate. A group in Boston filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a draft committee to encourage Manchin and Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican who is also not running for re-election, to form a third-party presidential ticket. Manchin fancies himself a moderate, as does Romney. Romney is not interested, or so he says now.

The problem with Manchin’s claim of being a moderate is that his record is one of voting for Joe Biden’s agenda. There is nothing moderate about that. What doomed Manchin was his yes vote on Biden’s $369B climate change boondoggle known as the Inflation Reduction Act. There was very little about tackling inflation and a whole lot about climate change. Manchin held out until Senator Schumer promised the pipeline he wanted to be approved would get a vote in the Senate. Manchin got snookered and Schumer never gave him the vote. Shocker, I know. West Virginia is an energy producer and its voters are not stupid. They no longer consider Joe Manchin their guy. Go figure.

Anyway, West Virginia went for Trump in a big way in 2016 and 2020. Trump won every one of West Virginia’s 55 counties in both elections. The popular Republican Governor Jim Justice was recruited to run for the Senate seat. Manchin knew he was toast. Manchin is not going down without a fight, though. As I said, he isn’t just fading into the background. He’s hanging around and looking for his next opportunity to garner national attention. He is also taking shots at both Trump and Biden as he leaves office. He said that if Trump wins a second term, “he will destroy democracy in America.” He’s using the popular Democrat canard that Trump is destroying democracy. That gives Trump more power than he holds. One person is not going to destroy this country. I argue that Biden and Democrats are doing their best to usher in Marxism and kill democracy. Our constitutional republic will survive and go on.

“You can’t have this visceral hatred spewing out of every time you give a speech, denigrating Americans,” he said. “And the only good American is the one that likes you and supports you; the only fair election is the one you win; the only laws pertain to everybody but you.”

Manchin also critiqued Democratic President Joe Biden on Wednesday, saying he has been pushed too far to the left during his term in office.

Has Manchin heard Biden speak? He trashes Republicans at every opportunity and uses such terms as Jim Crow 2.0, and Mega MAGA Republicans. I know it is hard to understand Biden with all the slurring of words and mumbling but he is sounding more and more like a partisan hack, not the president of all Americans, in this campaign season.

Trump is crowing about Manchin leaving the Senate. He is taking credit, naturally.

“Because I Endorsed Big Jim Justice of West Virginia for the U.S. Senate, and he has taken a commanding lead, Democrat Joe Manchin has decided not to seek re-election. Looking good for Big Jim!” the former president said on his Truth Social internet site.

Joe Manchin will not allow us to miss him, even if we were inclined to do so. He will find a way to be a third-party candidate and create mayhem for Democrats.

“I’ve done everything I can to try to change the political dysfunction and political divisions that we have in Washington, and I’ve come to the conclusion, it can’t be done here in Washington,” he said.

“The normal procedures in the political arena today, from Donald Trump’s point of view, is attack, attack, attack, insinuate, and then basically invigorate hatred, spew, call you names, wants to get a reaction, wants a fight,” he said. “It’s not who we are. We didn’t become this country like that.”

Manchin said when Trump was elected in 2016, he tried to work with him, but that the president’s approach to politics goes against “every grain I understood of what we’re supposed to do in public service.”

“You can’t say, ‘I’m going to take the most powerful office in the world and use it for vengeful purposes,’” he said.

The ego must be stroked.

“If they said, ‘You’re the only person to do it,’ I’ll do whatever I can to save this nation,” he said.

No one is asking that of Manchin. Trump has been on the receiving end of some favorable polling. Democrats are nervous as they see him up over Biden in six important battleground states. Manchin isn’t going anywhere for now. He’s looking for a way to jump back in.