Jeb Bush's Trial Balloon

[desrt]

If the Democrats can't come up with someone better and I have to vote Republican, I'll be ticked off. Still, he has to run the Tea Party gauntlet and that's a big 'if'.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/jeb-bushs-trial-balloon-if-he-runs-its-his-own-n259691

"Boy, there's plenty of 2016 news this morning -- from Hillary Clinton, Rob Portman, and Rand Paul. But we begin with the trial balloon that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush floated on Monday to a conference of CEOs sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. The gist of the trial balloon: If Bush is going to run, he's going to do it on his own terms. In other words, he'd be pulling a kind of "Bulworth," the 1990s-era movie about a politician who finally decides to speak his mind. "I don't know if I'd be a good candidate or a bad one," Bush said, per MSNBC's Kasie Hunt. "I kinda know how a Republican can win, whether it's me or somebody else -- and it has to be much more uplifting, much more positive, much more willing to be, 'Lose the primary to win the general' without violating your principles. It's not an easy task to be honest with you." In his conversation with the Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib, Bush said this would be the central question that would determine if he runs: "Do I have the skills to do it in a way that lifts people's spirits and not get sucked into the vortex?" When Seib asked Bush if there were things a politician had to do to win a Republican primary -- like oppose immigration reform and Common Core -- the former governor shot back, "Well, frankly, no one really knows that because it hasn't been tried recently."


If he can run like he wants to, he's in; if he can't, he won't

This is exactly the type of campaign that American voters say they want to see -- a politician standing up for what he or she believes, no matter the consequences and blowback from the base. But it's also the kind of campaign that normally gets a politician crushed in a primary contest. For instance, just see Sen. David Vitter's (R-LA) newfound opposition to Common Core with him running for Louisiana governor next year. Bottom line: There are just things you have to say and do to win a primary. Barack Obama had to be against free trade and NAFTA during the '08 Democratic primaries, but he came back to the middle in the general election. Hillary Clinton had to disavow her 2002 Iraq war vote. Mitt Romney had to go out of his way to make the case that his Massachusetts health-care law was different than the federal one. And even John McCain had to reverse himself on immigration reform to win the '08 GOP presidential nomination. So color us skeptical about Jeb ultimately running. He's in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and Common Core, while the energy of his party is FERVENTLY against those things. But what he's saying is that if he CAN run like this, he will. And if he CAN'T, he won't......"

[orphanedhawk]

I don't like any of the candidates :(

[el_em_en_oh]

If Jeb wasn't a Bush, I'd be 100% pulling for him.

I like the guy. His last name though...

I hate to be so shallow, but I'm just not sure the country is ready for another person of the Bush persuasion.

More and more, I think Hillary will get torpedo'd somehow, by the exiting Obama. He doesn't want her in there, because she'll do nothing to advance his agenda (ie: he wants someone that's going to build on what he sees as is his legacy... ACA & immigration-reform).

Nope... i don't think it's going to be Hillary.

But back to Jeb... I just wish he wasn't a Bush. That said, I'm going to do a little more digging and reading about him. Maybe I can get over his Bush'ness, if he is indeed really as good as he appears to be at first glance.

(come on out nay'sayers, and shoot him down before he even gets started... wait for it... wait for it...)

[Vance2335]

You vote Republican because it's the best thing you should do. :)