It’s the middle of the summer, your party is headed by a jingoistic reality TV star, so it’s hard to come up with a way to take a shot at the opposition without being overtly political. But after some no doubt extended brainstorming, Mackinac Center VP John Mozena (“a long-time advocate for free markets and liberty”) managed to come up with a way to spin Pokémon Go into a criticism of the Obamas.

Under the bizarre title “Imaginary Murder Pets Versus Michelle Obama” which sounds like a piece that was written over a few beers in the backyard, Mozena celebrates the private sector’s victory in getting kids to walk around staring at their phones. Getting them to do it more, apparently.

This is proof that free markets are working (“It’s super effective!”) because playing with phone apps outside is exercise. This from the people who told us ketchup is a vegetable.

And the proof that the government doesn’t work? A White House press release from six years ago pushing kids to exercise more, which he says announced a “massive public-private-nonprofit campaign.” Anyone remember that massive campaign?

The Mackinac Center and its ilk are as worried about Trump as the rest of us, but for a different reason. Corporate-funded think tanks across the country, as well as their  billionaire funders oppose Trump because they know they can’t control him. This disconnect, and the funding problem for the Republicans that follows, largely explains the selection of long-term Koch brothers favorite, Mike Pence, as the party’s VP nominee.

Which will fix everything, so long as they can control his urge to talk about Saddam sending anthrax to Congress or Disney producing “Mulan” as a liberal plot to get women into combat.

But probably more importantly, in 2011, then-congressional candidate Pence hired  ALEC Director of Tax & Fiscal Policy as his campaign policy director. That should go a long way to settle the Mackinac Center’s nerves.