Are we really doomed to that in 2016?
More thoughts from Mark Steyn:
Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton now and forever, at least until George P Bush marries Chelsea Clinton and the two ruling houses are consolidated into one House of Bush-Clinton-Rodham-Coburg-Gotha. I’ve nothing against Jeb Bush. I happen to disagree with him on “immigration reform”, but he was a competent executive of Florida and he’s a thoughtful and (on his game) gifted speaker. But there are over 300 million people in this country, and, granted that 57 per cent or whatever it’s up to by now are fine upstanding members of the Undocumented-American community, what is it about the Bush family that makes them so indispensable to the Republic as to supply three presidential candidates within a quarter-century? Say what you like about actual monarchy but at least you get a non-heriditary political class: this may seem incredible to Americans but neither Canada’s Stephen Harper, Australia’s Tony Abbott, New Zealand’s John Key nor Britain’s David Cameron is the previous Prime Minister’s brother or wife.
So who are these “influential Republicans” working to draft Jeb?
Many if not most of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s major donors are reaching out to Bush and his confidants with phone calls, e-mails and invitations to meet, according to interviews with 30 senior Republicans. One bundler estimated that the “vast majority” of Romney’s top 100 donors would back Bush in a competitive nomination fight.
“He’s the most desired candidate out there,” said another bundler, Brian Ballard, who sat on the national finance committees for Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008. “Everybody that I know is excited about it.”
The guys who picked last season’s loser are already excited about next season’s loser. How exciting is that?
Sigh.
NO! NO! NO! NOT THE SAME VISIONLESS, BLINDER WEARING TROLLS THAT WE’VE HAD SINCE REAGAN. THE
REPUBLICRAT PARTY INDEED! OUR ELITES ARE JUST TRADING FAILURE FOR FAILURE! SOON WE HAVE 90% + VOTING RATES, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER DICTATORIAL STATE! NO! NO! NO!
Ye who sat around at home while Mr. Obama was elected should search for the cap locks key and press it to take it out of cap lock. Remember, it was sorta OK that Mr. Obama got elected rather than John-the-Squish because of our own version of Cloward-Piven — that Mr. Obama would be so bad that people would turn back to us?
That sorta, kinda worked in 2010, leading to Mr. Obama’s “shellacking”, only some (cough) state officials (cough) showed our true colors, leading to a counter-shellacking that reelected Mr. Obama. Is anyone on the Right Blogosphere taking any responsibility for this double bounce apart from blaming the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Anyone? Buehler? Anyone?
I blame comfort. The ruling elite are comfortable and should not be. You may have noticed that Sarah Palin doesn’t have a Havard accent (I spelled that right.) But I don’t see people standing up cheering in movie theaters for any other politician.
Mayor Koch defended Sarah. That’s my litmus test… I scratch off any republican that bad mouths Sarah even though I don’t always agree with her. She’s a bit too much of a feminist for my taste but I can forgive her that.
Well, as days go by GWB keeps looking better and better thanks to Obama. Still would rather see someone new without a ton of baggage.
1976 ford-DOLE
1980 reagan-BUSH
1984 reagan-BUSH
1988 BUSH-quayle
1992 BUSH-quayle
1996 DOLE-kemp
2000 BUSH-cheney
2004 BUSH-cheney
2008 mccain-palin
2012 romney-ryan
2016 BUSH-???
that would be 8 out of 10 Bushs and Doles up on the top line.
Of course for the Dems, it could be almost as bad with Clintons.
If the 2016 presidental election is Clinton verses Bush, I’ll pray for the Sweet Asteroid of Death to end it all, preferably with ground zero being Washington DC during the middle of what passes for a work week there.
If Jeb Bush is the 2016 nominee, I’ll have three choices that have everyth8ing to do with his immigration stance and nothing to do with his last name;
#1, write in “none of the above”. I’ve done that in congressional races before, but presidential would be a first for me.
#2, vote third party, assuming a non-insane one appears on my ballot.
#3, vote for Hillary, whom I detest, as a way to show my anger at the GOP. (I’d probably go with option 1 or 2 though… I can’t see myself voting for someone I detest).
The same applies to Rubio or Ryan.
If the R nominee isn’t an amnesty shill but I have other reasons to dislike them (such as a shoddy fiscal or civil liberties record – I’m a libertarian, so those are important to me) I won’t be happy, but I’ll probably hold my nose and vote for them.
As for money… I’ll donate to tolerable national and local candidates only, not the party, nor any others.
Right now, my best guess is the republicans are going to, via enormous effort, snatch defeat the from looming jaws of victory this November, via alienating a big chunk of their own base who will then stay home. I think they’ve already done enough damage to themselves to have let the senate slip away (though simply shutting up between now and November could probably fix that). If they keep bringing up immigration, I think we’re also looking at a reduced hold on the House. I very much hope I’m wrong, but that’s my best guess for how this will play out.
“Right now, my best guess is the republicans are going to, via enormous effort, snatch defeat the from looming jaws of victory this November, via alienating a big chunk of their own base who will then stay home.”
This ^^
perhaps the GOP should shut down the government until Obama squeals and
they can pass a bill repealing Obamacare.
It was the Democrats who shut down the government, you moron.
Just keep on saying that.
You know, the sad thing is that in his intellectual circle, dn-guy is probably considered the real smart guy.
Indeed. The House passed a bill that would merely delay the mandates, and Obama promised to Veto while the Democrat controlled Senate failed to even consider the bill, thus shutting down the government. Months later, Obama would provide the same delay by Executive fiat.
There is very little surprising here. With our two major parties, it is never about ideology or competence – no matter what they say – but about the candidate’s willingness to keep the tax money flowing and to reward their contributors. I sorta already knew, but the aftermath of the 94 elections proved to me that the GOP was never going to cut spending, no matter what kind of majority they had. They will only ever do so if they feel they have no other way to win, which is precisely why I have supported the Libertarians ever since. If fear of Clinton/Gore/Obama is the only thing Republicans have to sell, they can peddle it down the street.
I’m concerned about vote fraud in the Republican primaries. I’ll be watching the primaries to see if the same voter tabulation issues show up in this set as they did in the set that elected Romney in 2012.
I hate to be the voice of doom, but once the populace elected an unreconstructed Red Diaper Baby as president–twice!– what was left of this one-time constitutional republic was pretty much headed for the garbage heap anyway.
Would things be much different if we just elected a king or queen? Then we could all speculate on where the heir and a spare would come from. But would it really make any difference in how ‘our’ government is operating today?
Yes Bilwick, that second election caused the scales to fall from my eyes.