Jeb Bush gave an early Christmas gift to all the haters out there by posting on Facebook his intention to begin exploring a run at the Presidency in 2016.
The laughably biased Politifact has already launched a series of their supposed fact checks into the former Florida governor. And it was the talk of many cable news programs last night. I had to laugh at Greta interviewing some troll from the Tampa Bay Times to get info on Bush's tenure as governor down here. I don't know if it was deliberate on her part to get someone from a Democrat mouthpiece outlet to speak on Bush, but watching this guy try to sound like an independent reporter was sort of fun.
As a Florida native myself, I had no problems with Bush during his time down here. I'm not a fan of his support for common core, but he seemed honestly sincere in his push to improve education in the state. He worked with a solidly Republican legislature here, as he would if elected in 2016, so he got pretty much whatever he wanted and the state did well during his terms in office. I think slamming him for the mortgage troubles down here is unfounded since our real estate market is different than most places and Bush had nothing to do with the prime lending meltdown.
I'm not sure Bush's stance as another compassionate conservative will play well with the growing anger among the Republican base. We really don't want another big spending conservative in office. And with the execrable Boehner as House speaker . . . well we've seen how he likes to do things, right?
As a candidate, I think Jeb would be a formidable opponent. Unlike his older brother, Jeb is more combative and outspoken and would be tough in the debates. And he speaks fluent Spanish, something folks from outside the state probably don't know. As Governor, he would give updates on hurricane preparations in both English and Spanish, and was not using a teleprompter while doing so. He'd be able to do interviews on networks like Univision that other candidates would not. And perhaps pairing him with Governor Suzanna Martinez, would make a potent team to reach out to what pundits say is a growing demographic in the country.
And added bonus would be that a Jeb run would suck the wind and money out of Marco Rubio's sails. I don't dislike Rubio, but we don't need any more junior senators going to the White House. And that goes for non-politicians as well, sorry Dr. Carson.
During the 2008 primaries, I posted about conservative's circular firing squad mentality. At the time, I noted that the Dems would only have to cull together blog posts and televised commentaries by conservative pundits who enthusiastically savaged Republican candidates in the name of thorough "vetting" to create ads saying that if conservative pundits think this way about the eventual candidate, why would anyone vote for them?
The vetting worked perfectly for the opposition party, destroying viable candidates like Rick Perry and opening the way for another disastrous Mitt Romney candidacy.
With the visceral hatred of any politician named Bush from the right, it will be interesting to see how Jeb hangs in there since he's giving everyone a big head start at smacking him around and nitpicking him to death. Of course, he may be banking on getting all the negative stuff dealt with early to clear his run down the stretch. Who knows? But I guess it's game on now.
Sexy Nikki ponders this quandary as well, but looks a hell of a lot better while doing it than I do:
