2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow we get bush3
No republican can take the bruising of the pre-convenion primaries. There are too many total wackos (as opposed to just plain wackos that are main line republicans) tea-ing on the bonfire. So they toss romney and his money in to kill off the total wackos while sustaining mortal wounds in return. No winner.
The convention is brokered. And a very white knight emerges. jeb is "forced" to heed god's call and "reluctantly" takes the nomination. He bypasses all the republican in-fighting and can actually campaign as a moderate with something akin to bush2's bullshit compassionate conservativism. The public always goes the the shiny new thing. jeb gets a couple of months of msm fawning and we're in the final stretch. It could be close enough for the crooked voting machines to steal the election (again).
Just a thought I had when turd blossom "praised" romney by saying that the best thing about him was that he was willing to do what he was told. karl knows how that will play with the public. It was setting richy rich up to take the convention fall.
The republican primary season is kabuki.
tanyev
(42,632 posts)He does not want to face Obama in 2012, especially given what this group of clowns has done to GOP favorability numbers.
The Republicans in Congress will be content blocking any kind of reform or recovery for another four years while blaming Democrats and Obama for the bottleneck. Sets up Jeb nicely.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,445 posts)that, despite spending his entire Presidency calling him "weak", accusing him of "leading from behind" or failing to lead entirely, accusing him of ruining the economy (or the new meme, he didn't do enough), pushed through a horrible anti-freedom, jobs killing health care reform plan, all of the GOP heavy hitters retreated from a race one-by-one that even the corporate media was essentially saying was the Republican Party's to lose. The election has, instead, been dominated mostly by a bunch of loons on the only reasonably "sane" candidates floundered and/or are floundering while all of the rest of the whack-a-loons have been getting their turn to "surge" to the front of the pack and delaying Romney's (still pretty likely) coronation.
Jakes Progress
(11,122 posts)I could always be giving too much credit to the corporate stooges who run politics or too little to the electorate. Could be that things are just as stupid as they look.
peace frog
(5,609 posts)2016 is Jeb's year.
Brother Buzz
(36,478 posts)I've been rethinking it. Jeb can jump into the fracas knowing he'll lose, but also knowing he'll become the de facto GOP spokesman, and in that position he can do two important things for the next four years: Reel in the Teabaggers and the Evangelicals, and re-brand the Bush name.
Brace yourself for a four year campaign with Jeb Bush's face and soundbites popping up everywhere. The BFEE is here to stay.
Puglover
(16,380 posts)I wonder if people are able to stomach the name "Bush". Christie would worry me more.
Samantha
(9,314 posts)that would make apathetic Democratic and some Independent voters RUN not walk to the polls to vote against the man.
Sam
Jakes Progress
(11,122 posts)Of course, either one turns the stomach of thinking people. But remember that bush2 "beat" Gore and Kerry. The electorate doesn't seem too discriminating.
Either could do it. Hell. huntsman could have. Even romney could stand a chance if he didn't have to pander to the tea party in the primaries. He's so twisted now, that either the republicans offer him up as fodder in an election they don't really want to win (economy still shot) or he gets tossed at the convention. Either way, no oval office in his future.
izquierdista
(11,689 posts)who switched the pot of white greasepaint with a tub full of bullshit?
Jakes Progress
(11,122 posts)have had a ready and abundant supply of bullshit. Just working with the medium they know, I guess.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)I'm convinced the majority of people have seen enough of that family for a lifetime.
Jakes Progress
(11,122 posts)You have more faith in how wise and discerning the electorate is than do I. I mean the ass-in-chief did get a second term.
peace frog
(5,609 posts)The electorate has a notoriously short memory which can be seen in a fairly predictable voting pattern, so the 2016 election season will be one in which the WH is ripe for Repub takeover. No doubt Jeb will cast himself as vastly, completely different in all ways from his brother and the voters just might buy it, particularly if the Dem candidates are lackluster. No way am I counting Jeb out.
tanyev
(42,632 posts)But it wouldn't surprise me if he throws his hat in the ring in 2016.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,445 posts)however, unless everybody falls into line and rallies around Jeb (who's seen as more of part of the GOP "establishment" , the "base" might end up feeling like they were cut out of the process and didn't get the nominee they wanted and split and run a 3rd party candidate and/or refuse to vote. Plus, no matter how Sarah Palin spins things, I can't honestly see them winning a "perception war" with a brokered (can't spell "brokered" without "broke" convention. I mean, if there IS a brokered convention and Jeb or somebody else magically becomes the nominee, then the corporate media won't be able to report on the nominee without mentioning that they became the nominee because of a brokered convention. People will (likely & rightly) perceive the GOP as too disorganized and unable to "get it together" to select their own nominee during the conventional process at the RNC, especially compared to the Democratic unity the presently exists around President Obama and will be even more evident during the DNC. Democrats could also run a few ads highlighting this as well. Even Obama could bring it up during the debates (i.e. "Why would the American people want to put a party fully in charge of the country when they can't even nominate a candidate the normal way?" "Brokered=Broken" The Clinton-Obama contest was rough in 2008 but Hillary didn't take it to the convention and people clearly wanted one or the other, so it wasn't like the DNC would have had to come up with a brand new candidate like the GOP might. Right now, none of the four GOP candidates seem to be running away with the nomination, not even Romney, who has always been considered the "frontrunner". I would also add that, after fawning over a "broke(red)" Republican candidate for a few days (or weeks), stuff will eventually come out about that candidate who will have less time to counter it effectively.
sofa king
(10,857 posts)It doesn't matter what happens at the convention if Ron Paul breaks and runs as a third party candidate, beneficiary of a year of Republican backing and already raised to national prominence on their dime. No Republican has a chance to win if that happens.
If that, or a similar outcome results, and Jeb has been unwise enough to put on the wetsuit, that's it for him, forever. Candidates don't come back from electoral wipeouts, and Hurricane Barack is already blowing up an impressive swell.
Wisdom would suggest then that Jeb should just watch the wave crash from the shore. Unfortunately for the world, Bushes aren't concerned with wisdom.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,445 posts)If Jeb is floated as a "broke(red)" candidate, I wonder if those pics of him and poppy Bush at the WH (NOT pointing fingers at Obama) might come back to haunt him.
Craigtee3030
(25 posts)Where I've talked about the RNC looking in EVERY DIRECTION for THE REAL CANDIDATE...
And, they've looked at a few...
...made Jeb the Bush du Jour. It was rock solid a few weeks ago, when he went to Maine to cost with his parents...on sjort notice...and with an entourage.
Caucus Interruptus - Part Douche! Thoughts at 3 A.M. http://thoughtsatthreeam.blogspot.com/?spref=tw
Cal33
(7,018 posts)suffering from the policies of Bush, Jr., even though the GOP is trying to put the blame
of what he had done on Obama, and there are plenty of dummies who believe the lies.
I don't think it's worth the effort to put up Jeb until 2016 or even later. The Repubs.
need to allow more time for the general public to forget.
PRETZEL
(3,245 posts)but I just don't see Jeb being that white knight that some of the R talking heads are spouting.
They can't run fast enough away from Skippy and his eight year onslaught on our country. How will another Bush be able to run away from his own brothers administration?