I have known—and worked with—former Massachusetts Governor William Weld since the days when he was the U.S. attorney in Boston and trying to put half the state legislature in the hoosegow. (In fairness to Weld, it was a pretty target-rich environment back in the late 1970s.) I voted for him twice. Through the years, we've run into each other here and there, most recently on the floor of the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa where, amidst a steaming broth of Romney-induced crazy, we looked like a couple of Rick Grimes's people from The Walking Dead. I still don't know why he teamed up with Gary Johnson the last time around. (Eventually, he went over the side and said he was voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton.)

Now, it appears, he's ready for one last leap in the dark. From NBC News:

“I’m here because I think our country is in grave peril,” Weld said at an announcement at a “Politics and Eggs” breakfast in New Hampshire, a frequent stop for presidential candidates. “I cannot sit quietly on the sidelines any longer...We cannot sit passively as our precious democracy slips quietly into darkness." ... In his Friday morning address, Weld criticized Trump for failing to champion freedom of the press and to “denounce appalling instances of racism.” He also pressed for U.S. leaders to address climate change and longer work visas for immigrants.

There are problems with his record. His time as U.S. attorney coincided with some of the bloodiest moments in the unholy alliance between the late gangster Whitey Bulger and the Boston office of the FBI. And he does tend to, well, lose interest in things. But he has one thing that is a pre-requisite for anyone planning to run against El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago—Bill Weld truly doesn't give a damn.

He is the last of the old-time Massachusetts WASP politicians, born into privilege and groomed for public service. He knows who he is back 10 generations. You are not going to be able to shake him with a stupid nickname or some middle-school cafeteria taunts. He can still summon up that lordly WASP disdain for the lower orders, but he can do it leavened with self-mockery, too. And, at the moment, despite all the endless soul-searching among more prominent Republicans, Weld actually looks to be getting into The Arena, as his former in-law Teddy Roosevelt once put it: Run, Bill, Run.

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Headshot of Charles P. Pierce
Charles P. Pierce

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.