Judging by what he's been doing since announcing in January that he wouldn't seek a second term, Matt Blunt believes it is his role to be a guy with a big megaphone who can use his ample official resources to benefit GOP candidates by regularly attacking Democrats.  Yesterday's contrived assault on Jay Nixon [1] and last week's childish tilt at Jeff Harris [2] are but the most recent examples.

But despite a concerted effort to be the anti-Nixon, Blunt has been heretofore silent about the specifics of his support in the Republican gubernatorial primary.  One can only imagine that, at some point before August, the sitting governor will roll around to announcing his support for one candidate or the other in the race to succeed him.

The big question about that, of course, is whether his is support anyone wants.

Though it's a truism that no matter how unpopular an elected executive gets, he or she maintains a fair amount of popularity among his or her own party, one has to wonder if the case of Matt Blunt doesn't test the boundaries of that logic.   Blunt was, after all, at a robust 56% disapproval [3] rating among Missouri voters back in the middle of April.   And that was before Blunt and his top aides were fingered as having directly ordered the destruction [3] of electronic backup tapes --a story which cannot have helped his numbers.

That's in addition to the fact that the state's economy has gotten very, very soft under Blunt's watch, with jobless numbers climbing [3] and revenue estimates appearing as though they'll fail to reach the levels planned [3] for by Blunt in upcoming budget years.  Accompanying those sad circumstances is the realization that Blunt's chief legislative accomplishment, the sale of MOHELA's assets, has left the loan agency teetering on the brink of insolvency [3] and forced to scale back its educational mission. 

Given all of that, it's legitimate to ask whether Blunt may not have yet endorsed in the governor's race because one or both of the candidates have implored him not to weigh them down with his support.  It wouldn't be completely surprising for a GOP hopeful to decide that the Governor's support may not be worth having to answer question after question about whether he or she supports Blunt's decisions to destroy documents, slash health care and make education less affordable. 

As the primary marches closer, will the Republicans embrace their fallen leader and his dramatic faults, or will they continue to dance the Matt Blunt Polka, carefully stepping around him?