Draft Jeb Bush [Republican Establishment Going Over the Cliff: NO MORE BUSHES]

National Review ^ | January 24, 2012 | Artur Davis

[Steelfish]

JANUARY 24 Draft Jeb Bush A charismatic and accomplished governor can save the Republican party.

Artur Davis

In the early months of the election year, a polarizing president with a lackluster approval rating bided his time as the opposition party unraveled. Its nominating fight dissolved into chaos as the establishment front-runner collapsed, and an insurgent with a talent for galvanizing his party’s base surged, despite persistent fears about his electoral appeal beyond the party’s hardcore.

A protracted primary fight ensued, with the insurgent and the party’s resistant establishment eviscerating each other for months; by the time it ran its course, a president who seemed imminently beatable was ahead by double digits. The story ends with that same president winning by an historic margin over a party that rejected its recent past in favor of a dangerously uncertain future.

This is a recounting of the 1972 election season. If it has the feel of a premonition, it’s because Republicans look dangerously on the verge of repeating the demolition derby that so weakened Democrats that year.

Mitt Romney may be a better-constructed front-runner than Ed Muskie, but he is still a flawed contender whose candidacy seems at odds with his party’s mood and whose own half-answers have made his wealth seem shadowy and amoral. Newt Gingrich may be a far better-known quantity than the hapless George McGovern, but he still seems, like McGovern, more suited to the task of revolution than political persuasion. Republicans are, and should be, very worried.

Enter the last dream date that Republicans may have at their disposal. His name is Jeb Bush, and this time, there is a feasibility around the idea that seemed unthinkable months ago.

To be sure, the Jeb scenario will need more instability in order to flourish. The likeliest path...

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[jmaroneps37]

Artur Davis is a self confessed voter fraud participant and a Democrat who has just reminded me of why I stopped taking National Review years ago.

[duckman]

Hate to sound like a broken record; but I'll say it again. Hey Jeb remember Terri, some of us still do.

[CondorFlight]

“Hey Jeb remember Terri, some of us still do.”

Yeah, there are a lot of us here, who do.

[Wyoming Cowboy]

You couldn’t pay me to vote for another Bush. When the current crop of losers have all failed to reach the delegate goal, we should draft Sarah Palin, and that’s that. I won’t vote for anybody else. And when she’s president, she should tap Ron Paul for Treasury Secretary. That’s the area he shines in.