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Jeb Miffed There’s No Bush as Prez
Jeb Bush thought America should have three consecutive Republican Presidents from the same immediate family. Think about that.
In his “defense,” he may have known, either consciously or unconsciously, that if nominated, he would lose. I’m not ruling that out as a possibility seeing him and his family in light of transpired events.
I also wonder if Jeb thought about how his entrance into the field of Republican wannabes would affect other candidates and may (if he failed to get the nomination) scuttle the chances of Marco Rubio especially — a fully qualified candidate who held very similar policy views as the Bush family. This is essentially what happened as we look back.
Jeb raised a whopping $100 million, much of which would have gone to Rubio, as well as the endorsement of the Bush network and the famiglia Cespuglio itself. Trump would not have had much chance to emerge against a united establishment behind a young dynamic candidate with early momentum.
Now Jeb believes Republicans should have a “choice” in 2020. I don’t remember if he had the same sentiment in 2004 when his brother ran for re-election.
He likes moderate Republican from Maryland Governor Hogan as a primary challenger.
Two questions: Why should anyone, even establishment Republicans, listen to to the political advice or preferences of this guy?
Do these people — Jeb!, Bill Kristol, Max Boot, Jen Rubin, et al. — not see how whomever they tout and support for 2024 will be anathema to even the most reluctant Trump voter?
Published in General
Jeb Bush wanted/wants to be president. I don’t hold that against him, and I don’t care what family he comes from. I won’t judge him based on his brother, or his father.
Just him.
Of course, I don’t like his immigration policies.
But I still don’t care what family he comes from.
Him is sour grapes. Plus, we don’t need no stinkin dynasties.
If Max could fix it so that the “Like” button said “Please Clap” instead, that would be awesome.
There is no one person- or even a thousand people, who is uniquely qualified to be President.
Jeb wanting to be President despite the fact that he’d be the third in a row, reveals a selfishness beyond comprehension, because appearances count as well. Even if he had been at complete odds with his predecessors with the same surname, it would have been inappropriate. Tough (CoC) Jeb! Too bad you only got to be a Governor of a large state and a multimillionaire.
Besides his protestations, his donors and entire network came from daddy and bro’s connections derived from years in power.
And I don’t believe for a moment that it would not have been an extension of the dynasty. It could not have been otherwise with the support in money and endorsements and expected jobs.
It’s un-American to presume that we need another Bush. Barbara has some class, until she was emotionally blackmailed by poor lil’ Jeb who wanted to realize his dream.
Did Jeb! indicate what canidate that his patrons / China supports?
Yeah–except for all those funds funneled to his PAC by the ChiComs.
No more Bushes, no more Clintons.
Or any of their friends.
I actually don’t have anything against Jeb. But I think you are correct here. I was first eligible to vote for president in 1980. Since then , there has been only ONE presidential election I voted in (2012) where someone named Bush or Clinton was NOT running for president or on their party’s ticket. Enough already.
P.S. As an FYI, George Herbert Walker Bush was a candidate for president or Vice President in FOUR STRAIGHT presidential elections.
First, appearances have been held more against conservatives than liberals. Some conservatives who resent that, voted for Trump. (Me! Me!) My favorite conservative personalities are those that refuse to apologize to the mob (latest example, Tucker Carlson).
Second, all top tier presidential candidates are incredibly selfish beyond comprehension.
By definition, if you want to be president and are willing to go through the political gymnastics to become president, you have a major character flaw. Make that more than one.
We’ve had two everymen become president post, World War II. Truman and Ford. They were accidental presidents.
I do. We don’t have royalty here. Two Adams in the early 19th century was bad enough. Three Bushes would be abominable.
“Unlike the gentle Japanese,
We’ve never worshiped dynasties.
So why is everyone hell-bent,
On making Jeb Bush president?”
I got a Belgian ale for anyone who can tell us where I stole that doggerel.
I’ve said it before, rising the ire of a certain individual here at Ricochet, but the NeverTrumpers have next to zero influence anymore. They are ghosts in the wind. I never had any real animosity towards Jeb Bush. He tried and got punked. It happens. What he is doing now, in continually criticising PDJT, is showing Jeb to be a spoiled and pouty elite brat. He’s nothing more than a fleck of dandruff that Trump will brush off with a single swipe.
No we don’t. Technically everyone gets an even chance at the presidency regardless of what family they’re from. We don’t have a constitutional provision that says that the son or brother of a president is ineligable.
Despite their dynastic status, the Bush’s, or the Adam’s, or the Harrison’s are not royalty. Each had to run for president on their own, and convince the electorate that they were the best for the job. Nothing was pre-ordained for them.
If it were, that would be royalty.
It works both ways. Just as a common person with no dynastic family behind him has an equal chance (in a technical sense) to become president so it is with a person with that connection.
The voters still have to be convinced.
So much hyperbole.
We’ve never worshipped dyanasties. Jeb Bush is getting significant resistance towards his ambitions. Where is this “everyone” you’re talking about?
I certainly don’t want him to be president. I base that on his policies, especially his stance on immigration. It would be the same stance I’d have towards a non-Bush with identical policies.
I judge him individually.
Son of a gun. Al, I overlooked that William and Benjamin Harrison were grandfather and grandson. The Roosevelts were more distantly related, and wasn’t Eleanor also TR’s niece? You could look it up.
But that’s my point. The Constitution does not prohibit this, so it’s legal, but it’s still wrong. Our best presidents (Reagan, Coolidge, Lincoln) have been people who came to the job from the outside, not familial insiders.
You will respond, “FDR”. His first two terms were a disaster. Had he stuck to tradition and stepped down in 1941, we would remember him very badly.
Perhaps we can get a Constitutional amendment introduced before Chelsea runs.
Sorry, Al, you don’t know the citation. I don’t want to give it away yet in case someone with sharp eyes was reading the same magazine I read in 1980. The original had “Teddy” in place of “Jeb Bush”. My point was about dynasties. I think I made it plain that I was freely borrowing.
Could we get Alice Cooper to sing this to the tune of “Schools Out for Summer”?
It’s a little too polished for Mad Magazine, but it’s the kind of thing they’d do.
I was Never Jeb as soon as he was anointed by TPTB early in the 2016 race. Glad he failed miserably.
This should include spouses. I don’t want husbands or wives of presidents back in the Whitehouse.
This hypothesis hardly seems plausible. Serious (i.e., non-joke) candidates enter to win. ¡Jeb! raised some serious money from donors, as you noted. Do you imagine his pitch was “I don’t expect to win but gimme money anyhow”? Or perhaps he was just a pathological liar who only pretended to have a chance to win.
I think every one of those 17 candidates thought he or she had a chance. Certainly, the best-funded ones did. After all, we’ve all been lectured endlessly about the importance of money in elections. And no one was better funded than ¡Jeb!
It’s all water under the bridge now as far as I’m concerned and maybe my memory is faulty, but wasn’t JEB! one of those lying twits who made a pledge to support the nominee and then violated his pledge when the eventual nominee was Trump?
To be fair to Jeb! the Bush family has a sense of noblesse oblige which he may have been trying to perpetuate, and when Trump moved our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, he gave Trump credit for doing so, even though Trump humiliated him in the primaries. That said, unlike Trump Bush was out of touch with people’s financial concerns, as proven by his stance on immigration, and would have been unlikely to have stood up to the media barrage or to have boldly accomplished tax cuts, deregulation or removing the Obamacare mandate.
Well, Trump was so distasteful, don’t you know.
Another strike against him, particularly given President Trump’s successes and governing philosophy.
I can believe that of G. H. W. Bush, but I can’t bring myself to believe that of his sons.
Technically….yes.
The reality has become quite a different thing.
I absolutely believe that there should be a Constitutional prohibition on allowing a member of an immediate family member ever becoming President. That’s father/mother ( unlikely) children wife and siblings. That would preclude them from being VP because of the succession line. Grandchildren would not be exempt.
The reasoning is simple. As President you become leader of the party and can place loyalists in key roles. As President you appoint thousands of people and garner thousands of influential friends, you nurture financial relationships with donors. All of these things can be passed as a package onto the next family member in line.
Just look at the Clinton family, whereby so much of Bill’s influence , along with so much inside knowledge ( remember the FBI file scandal?) helped Hillary win a Senate seat in a deep blue state. They also can do a lot to determine who they have to run against by pulling strings. (Who is Rick Lazio?) Let’s not forget nurturing friends in the media.
Now let’s look at the Bush family. Poppy Bush was in government his entire life was Director of the CIA(!) and a sitting VP for 8 years and President for 4 years. Then after an 8 year interim, the son became President for 8 years. That’s a total of 20 years of having a family member at the top ( and 12 years as President) and the they wanted another 8 years?
Equal in a technical sense…. Ha! I have a technically equal chance of beating Steph Curry in a game of H-O-R-S-E.
As to the electorate-
They get a “choice” between a Big Mac or a Whopper. If you really think the electorate has real choices to nominate candidates, and then have an open choice after that, I can’t fathom the naïveté.
There is no choice between a Big Mac or a Whopper. Clearly the Big Mac is the better sandwich.
We don’t currently have a nobility (although sometimes I wonder), but it seems to me that the easiest way to generate one would be to consistently elect the same family to high office. I wouldn’t vote for Jeb Bush simply because I don’t want a nobility.
That said, if Jeb were primarying G.W. in 2004 that’d be a different matter.
Re: His latest comment about thinking people should have a choice (when suggesting someone primary Trump). Don’t remember his saying that in either 2004 or 1992. Maybe he did say it, but I didn’t hear it.
For those who like lots of bread and salad dressing on their burger.