Why Jeb Bush Could Run in 2008

[norml]

Why Jeb Bush Could Run in 2008
Posted by James Joyner at 07:09
OpinionJournal editor Brendan Miniter thinks we should be careful about writing off the possibility of a Jeb Bush candidacy in 2008.

Bush 44

He denies he's even interested, and a long list of political analysts have already written him off with the belief that the appearance of political nepotism would be too unseemly for voters to put the brother of the current president in the Oval Office. But in politics timing is everything, and as the clock advances towards 2008, things are starting to fall into place to give Jeb Bush the momentum he needs to win the White House. And this isn't contingent on Hillary Clinton emerging as the Democrats' nominee--though if she does, the path will be all the smoother for another Bush.

<...>

Ideas matter more in politics than having an "electable" candidate. Right now the ideas of the Bush family are ascendant. Bush 43 didn't win the White House on the coattails of his father. Name recognition didn't hurt, nor had all the contacts he'd made in politics. But the fact that Bush 41 lost to Bill Clinton in 1992 meant that George W. Bush had a particularly steep hill to climb within his own party. Republicans who stayed home to see the father lose would not have put the son over the top in 2000 unless he'd won them over first.

Before stepping out onto the national stage, this Bush generation's ideas of incrementally smaller government proved popular with voters in two large states. George W. Bush defeated Democratic incumbent Ann Richards in 1994 to become governor of Texas and was re-elected in 1998. The Lone Star State is clearly among the most conservative in the country, but Gov. Bush helped turn what was once a reliably Democratic state into one where Republicans now dominate. Jeb, meanwhile, lost a hard-fought race for governor in Florida in 1994. But he came back four years later and was re-elected in 2002, despite the residual bitterness from the 2000 presidential election and the Democrats' decision to make his defeat a priority.

With a strong string of electoral victories, why would Republicans now turn their backs on the Bushes? It certainly wouldn't be because of Jeb's record in Florida. He's been steadily amassing an antitax, bedrock conservative record over the past seven years. There's not much there that the party's base is going to hate. Indeed, before he lost in 1994, the scuttlebutt on Jeb was that he was "the conservative Bush."


snip


http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/11588

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[norml]

2. You mean like the Nazis? They were invincible too, according to their

Propaganda

[Ready4Change]

3. Like Bobby Kennedy would have run and won, eh?

Except there seems to be one key difference, hmmm, what could that be. Oh, yah...

One side doesn't mind committing murder.

But times are changing, ShortPost. We'll defeat Jeb the legitimate, and American, way. The next election turnout is going to be so lopsided fixed voting equipment won't be able to counter it.

[madeline_con]

7. "ShortPost." (ooo, I heard that!)

Is there a :freak: among us?

[Ready4Change]

9. The term leaps into my mind

Whenever I read such postings from someone with a hundred posts or so. Normally I bite my tongue, but this guy's pretty blatantly trolling.

[madeline_con]

5. Welcome to DU. Are you a troll?

"Get over it" is a typical FREEKER comment.

I'm just saying.

[Ready4Change]

6. You think? Heheh

ShortPost is pretty transparent.

[madeline_con]

8. Clearly...

;)

Let's let it stay for a while, so we can poke at it with sticks and pour dirt in its mouth....

[Ready4Change]

10. I'm not getting near that mouth.

Who knows where it's been?

[niallmac]

11. Let it go! How would you like if

someone took away your freedom and didn't care what you thought...oh. Let me see if I can find a stick.

[madeline_con]

12. Get a pointy one.....

we'll see if it feels pain...

[madeline_con]

4. First of all....

this article seems to assume there was no election fraud; that DUH-bya actually won in a real sense.

To conveniently win in "what was once a reliably Democratic state" makes one wonder what sort of vote tampering may have been going on there years ago.

Before people talk about DUH-bya winning elections, they should know he has probably never really won one in his life.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

13. Schiavo .... Schiavo ..... Schiavo .... Schiavo

That was the ultimate intrusion by government into a personal, private family tragedy.

It's the only card any challenger needs to play to defeat him.

[norml]

26. Alan Keyes: JEB & GEORGE BUSH IS KILLING TERRI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alan Keyes
TERRI SCHIAVO: Jeb Bush is courting dereliction of duty
Tue Mar 29, 2005 21:05
64.140.158.57


JEB & GEORGE BUSH IS KILLING TERRI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeb Bush is courting
dereliction of duty

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 29, 2005
11:44 a.m. Eastern

By Alan Keyes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The Florida state constitution declares unequivocally that in the state of Florida "the supreme executive power shall be vested in a governor . ." The word supreme means highest in authority. There can be no executive authority in the state of Florida higher than the governor. No state law can create an executive authority higher than highest in the Florida constitution. Therefore no court order based upon such a law can constitutionally create such an authority.

If the governor tells the local police in Pinellas County to step aside, they must do so, or else be arrested and tried for an assault on the government of the state, which is to say insurrection.


(If Gov. Jeb Bush fears that for some reason they would question the authority of his representatives, then he should take the necessary law enforcement officials to Tampa in person, thus making the situation crystal clear.)

Since Florida's highest law grants him supreme executive power, the governor's action would be lawful. No one in the Florida judiciary can say otherwise, since the whole basis for the doctrine of judicial review (which they invoked when they refused to apply "Terri's law") is that any law at variance with the constitution is no law at all.


snip


http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/03-30-05/discussion.cgi.47.html

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

32. Guess they can fight over who is king of the efungelical nutcases

But besides crazy Keyes and the fundies, the vast majority see Jeb as the mastermind of government intrusion into Schiavo...of course, Frist, Santorum, DeLay and W could also earn that title.

[wakeme2008]

14. Jeb has a Wife problem

They do not live together.

Watch for something to happen to her as your first clue Jeb is running.

[morningglory]

16. Insider Repug operatives in FL say he has been having an affair for years.

[wakeme2008]

22. Yes and more than one

it could turn out to be a Bimbo Eruption to coin a phrase.

[TheCowsCameHome]

18. Doesn't he have a daughter problem, too?

Soundls like real messed-up family.

Not good for the right-wing whackjobs.

[Vinca]

21. The other day someone posted a thread about a supposed

"love child" (cue Diana Ross and the Supremes). Anyone heard anything else on that?

[DeepModem Mom]

15. IMO, If Jeb wants it, he can have it -- his is a Mafia family...

and he's not Fredo.

[Chicago1]

17. You can't run if YOU'RE IN JAIL OR FACING THE DEATH PENALTY

Jeb is going to jail with the rest of the Mafia or FACING THE DEATH PENALTY. This whole bunch is going down.

[bearfan454]

19. One word - DIEBOLD !

[rasputin1952]

20. I don't think the country would accept another bush as president....

I would actually welcome Jeb bush as a candidate. The stench of 'royalty' surrounding the bush family would ignite recalcitrant D's to the polls in unheard of #'s.

Of course, if he DID win, and that is atronomically out of proportion w/anything this nation has seen before, it would most certainly be a stolen and highly controversial election that may well bring the nation to a Civil War.

[norml]

23. As term winds down, Bush's allies tout governor's legacy

As term winds down, Bush's allies tout governor's legacy


Aim is to fend off lame-duck perception

By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Posted August 22 2005


Seventeen months before he leaves office, Jeb Bush and some of his most loyal supporters are preparing a public-relations offensive to promote the governor's record on reforming Florida's education system.

Bush allies last month quietly incorporated the Foundation for Florida's Future, a nonprofit group that will concentrate on touting Bush's record on schools. It's a relaunch of a public policy foundation that preceded his 1998 gubernatorial campaign, but this time is organized to be a potentially potent political advocacy group.

"We're just getting this started," said Mandy Fletcher, a former Bush-Cheney presidential campaign staffer who is the part-time executive director of the new foundation. "It's an issue-advocacy organization to promote the policies and achievements that the state has seen under the leadership of Gov. Jeb Bush."

In a brief e-mail response to questions, Bush said the foundation will supplement his own bully pulpit efforts.

"This will only enhance our commitment to education and our effort to make sure every child in FL succeeds," he wrote.


snip


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-fjeb22aug22,0,2452785.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[terrya]

24. If Jeb Bush wants the nomination, it's his.

The Bush family now controls the Republican Party so completely, so absolutely, that if Jeb Bush wants the nomination, it's his. Jeb Bush would appeal to the corporate and the fundamentalists that constitute the base of the party. Plus, Jeb Bush can certainly raise a lot of money...just because of his name.

Not only do I think it's a possibility, if he wants it, it's a certainty.

[norml]

27. "Not only do I think it's a possibility, if he wants it, it's a certainty"

That's my opinion too.

They think they can win anything with just the support of their base and their propaganda machine.

They are not part of the reality based community.

[ontobush]

25. JEB and the PNAC

I think that he has a very good chance at becoming the Repub nominee, along with Cheney, although Cheney says he's not interested in running. Yeah, right.

Either one would be what the radical right would need to carry ON the PNAC agenda as both are members.

[xxqqqzme]

28. jebby'll run

there will be some horrible terrorist attack in FL that he will avert w/ seconds 2 spare. Looks good on a resume.

[maxsolomon]

29. not only will he run, he will win

by the thinnest of diebolded margins.

[mconvente]

30. No independent would vote for chimpy's bro

After how horrible Shrub is doing now - polling at 36% approval

[mikelewis]

31. It's not who casts the votes but who counts them that gives us our leaders

The Repub's know that they have no shot of actually winning another (s)election. They will choose Jeb because they know he can win, his family controls the vote counters and the media and this will keep them in power. It's either Jeb or Frist but my money's on Jeb.

[Imagevision]

33. Jeb has more hidden drug escapades then brother George!

could come into play

[liberaliraqvet26]

34. he cannot possibly win...

even the fundies don't like him because he didn't send the national guard in to get Terri Schaivo