The Colorado Sun25%
Littwin: If you want to understand Jared Polis’ midlife crisis, I’ve got a bunch of readers ready to help 41%
By Mike Littwin0%
8/2/2026, 2:05:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Straw Man, and Out-Group Homogeneity Bias, with Hasty Generalization as the most egregious example at 12.4% saturation with 195 hits. Analysis detected 1,392 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,571 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 39.9% and a BS Rank of 41% (15,382 of 25,730 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 59.80% of the article peer group.
When I wrote my column last Sunday, I asked readers to help me understand why Jared Polis had taken a once-semi-promising political career and — whoosh — basically set it on fire.
Was it a case of self-sabotage?
Was it a midlife crisis?
Was he sick of elective office and hoping instead to join the billionaire tech bro oligarchs — even though, according to those who do the counting at Forbes, he’s several hundred million dollars short?
After all, these are the guys who run the country so long as they keep Trump on the, uh, payroll.
I said I was stumped by the whole Polis thing — I’ve always believed he wanted to be president and was just delusional enough to believe that he could pull it off, but now? — and then wrote a thousand words proving I didn’t have a satisfactory answer or even an adequately funny one.
But I also laid a trap.
I turned to you, my loyal and not-so-loyal readers, for help in figuring out this mess that Polis had made.
His praise for RFK Jr.
His commutation for Tina Peters.
His latest turn, making the rounds of right-wing TV to blast socialism as destroying our country, as if there were a Melat Kiros — Polis knows she’s a democratic socialist, but doesn’t address that or even concede there’s a significant difference — under every bed.
You replied in force, by the dozens and dozens.
I had made it into a contest — the five best answers win the writer a free Colorado Sun cap or T-shirt.
I’ll let the winners know who they are, aside from me.
As one of my editors put it, I did what every columnist secretly hopes for — to get his readers, every so often, to write the column for him.
So, what did those readers have to say?
Many make the argument that Polis has always been a libertarian in sheep’s clothing and that he must be thinking of running for president as a tech-bro libertarian.
It makes some sense, other than the fact that libertarians don’t see libertarian-adjacent Polis as one of their own.
And, we should also mention, no libertarian is going to win the presidency in my or your or Polis’ lifetime.
Some see him as another Sen.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, ready to jump to the other party.
But Colorado was a deep red state at the time, and Campbell’s choice to leave the Democratic Party worked out well enough for him.
Polis, on the other hand, is a gay, pro-choice politician who advocates (if not as much as I’d like to see) for universal healthcare.
Does that sound like someone Republicans would embrace?
Terry Cannon of Castle Rock thought that Polis could still convince Republicans that he’s one of them, writing, “He could go through a Marcus Bachmann ‘Pray Away the Gay’ course.
Then, he’d have to get a divorce, of course, but that would be another check mark in the GOP qualifying column.
He could fake an on-line sexting affair with a teenage girl; another check mark!”
Even better, he could go to Victor Marx, who casts away, uh, demons inside anyone who chooses the “homosexual lifestyle.”
He can even do it, he says, over the phone.
Jackie Anderson of Denver offered more reasonable paths that Polis could yet follow politically, writing he could run in 2028 as an independent, positioning himself “as a fiscal conservative (against Trump’s grift and his minions JD Vance, Rubio, even Don Jr.) and social middle-of-the road (against Mamdani, Kiros and all the socialists and communists).
He could argue he was re-elected in Colorado because he is sensible; he doesn’t change positions when the wind blows; he knows how to pick his battles.”
Or as Mary Ann McAndrews put it, Polis “is gearing up to become part of the New Right, post-MAGA, to scrape up the remains of the GOP and join it to the Never Trumpers who sat this one out … but who are still Republicans at heart.”
She said we should be hearing about this in 2030, laying the groundwork for 2032.
Former state Sen.
Shawn Mitchell offers up a (tongue-in-cheek?)
lane for office that explains Polis’ recent behavior:
“He figures it will give him a plurality size lane of sane Democrats in a crazy crowded primary field carved up among socialists, communists, cannibals, and Bolsheviks.
“If that works, and he corners the nomination, he is well positioned to win the general election riding the votes of the majority of Americans who aren’t crazy but are sour on Republicans.
“You heard it here first.”
My response and probably yours, too: Cannibals?
Eva Hutt had a more philosophical take: “Wealth will rot your mind, distance you from your electorate and aggravate whatever tendencies to self delusion you already had. It’s a corollary rule to, ‘It’s the economy stupid.
’”
Many blamed Trump for Polis’ problems.
I find that blaming Trump is always a reasonable option.
Even the Justice Department, which dropped the charges against the alleged Reflecting Pool saboteur, briefly stood up to Trump.
One writer said she believed that Polis gave clemency to Tina Peters because “Trump’s gangster mob threatened Polis’s children, mobster style — killing or mutilating.”
She did admit her friends and husband thought the idea was crazy.
I have to agree … that it’s crazy.
Trump is undeniably corrupt and he has actively encouraged violence at times, but I don’t think he’s ever used his jackbooted thugs at ICE on a politician.
Others believed Trump or the DOJ or Kash Patel have been blackmailing him.
Which doesn’t exactly explain why Polis took so long to commute Peters’ sentence.
Whatever else you say about Trump, he is not a patient man.
Some wondered whether Trump offered him a cabinet position — as if a politician could be enticed so easily.
Some mentioned that Polis is trying to engage with Peter Thiel, the billionaire who gave us JD Vance.
As Dave (he didn’t want his last name used) wrote of Polis: “He wants to be the new, improved, sane Trump.
His competition is Rubio and Vance.
He’s playing to an audience of one: Peter Thiel, the kingmaker who made J.D.
Vance vice president.
Polis needs his money and behind-the-scenes clout.”
Others went in a completely different direction — blaming his mother, of all people, for encouraging him to think that he was the smartest person in the room.
I had a Jewish mother — I always joked that if I had killed a president, she would have bragged about what a good shot I was.
But my late mother, who loved Bobby Kennedy, would never have let me get anywhere near RFK Jr.
Just sayin’.
And yes, predictably, and funnily, several people blamed Polis’ erratic behavior on a brain worm, the one that presumably crawled out of RFK Jr.’s head.
Others reasoned — and this may be a very good point — that Polis is looking to be the Democrat explainer for right-wing media, or maybe CNN, which seems to be turning into the same thing.
As Dave Bauer of Cherry Hills Village wrote: “Look at talking heads like Nicolle Wallace and Michael Steele for the model — influential Republicans who turned against … their party to play the part of Republican insiders who could explain the party’s inner workings to the rest of us.
Polis could end up as the DINO (Democrat-In-Name-Only) serving the same role on FOX, Newsmax, or even CBS or CNN under Paramount.
Through this lens, his appearances on Fox News and Newsmax make perfect sense.
They’re tryouts for the job!”
Curtis Hubbard, the Democratic consigliere who gets paid to help get Dems elected, offered these insights:
“Jared is smart enough to see A) He had no hope as a ‘typical’ Democratic Presidential contender before the Peters’ decision.
B) There is widespread opposition to both parties across the country.
C) He’s got pundit chops as both a former governor and successful businessman.
“As I try to figure out an explanation for his recent moves, I think he sees a very effective, post-gubernatorial role for himself as a ‘better Andrew Yang.’ He can go out and re-establish his business bona fides, and he’s now bucked the Ds in significant enough ways to go out and do the ‘pox on both your houses’ cable news circuit and see where it takes him in the next four to eight years.”
I know I should end on a “better Andrew Yang.”
I certainly can’t beat that.
But I’ve got one more that really makes me laugh, via Hans Buljung of La Veta, who did a rundown of recent governors and noted what they’re remembered for.
Richard Lamm for turning down the Olympics.
Roy Romer for doing “some good things, but I can’t remember what.”
“Polis will forever be remembered for the Peters pardon...in flashing lights.
As far as the Kennedy thing, who knows?
He’s not going to run for anything else so why not go out in a flash of brilliant stupidity and be remembered for something.”
That’s as good an explanation as any.
Thanks to everyone for participating.
Winners will be advised by email.
It was great fun.
And if anyone has an idea for my next column, you know where to reach me.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.