The Latest New Right-Wing Malady: Jeb Bush Fever

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/latest-new-right-wing-malady-jeb-bush-fever

Can the Republican Party base catch Jeb Bush fever? They may have no choice. According to the Washington Post’s Philip Rucker and Robert Costa, GOP donors panicked over Gov. Chris Christie’s implosion are going all out to draft the long-ago Florida governor to run for president in 2016.

Jeb Bush is certainly tanned and rested, if not ready: He left the governor’s office in 2006, and has done little since then besides work for disgraced and defunct Lehman Brothers and write a book that reversed his once progressive stance on immigration reform. Rucker and Costa quote a former Mitt Romney bundler saying the “vast majority” of Romney’s top 100 donors would like to see a Bush run.

“He’s the most desired candidate out there,” said Brian Ballard, a member of the Romney 2012 and McCain 2008 national finance committees. “Everybody that I know is excited about it.”

So to summarize: Bush hasn’t run for office in 14 years; his wife, Columba, is known to be unenthusiastic about a presidential run; his own mother doesn’t think he should do it; and in a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 50 percent of registered voters say they “definitely would not” vote for him – but the wise men of the party want to draft him anyway. This should all work out fine.

[jehop61]

1. Perhaps he hasn't figured out

how to spin the story of his wife's smuggling of designer clothes or his daughter's shoplifting conviction?

[JaneyVee]

2. "No more Bush's"-Barbara Bush

[customerserviceguy]

3. It's just the Republicon talking heads

on TV who are saying anything about Jebbie. The average GOP primary voter and caucusgoer don't like him. There's maybe 15-20 percent of that base that is OK with immigration reform, Bush and Rubio will split them up and each stay in or near single digits.