Posted on 03/03/2014 8:03:20 AM PST by Kenny
WASHINGTON — OY. By the time the Bushes and Clintons are finished, they are going to make the Tudors and the Plantagenets look like pikers. Before these two families release their death grip on the American electoral system, we’re going to have to watch Chelsea’s granddaughter try to knock off George P.’s grandson, Prescott Walker Bush II. Barack Obama, who once dreamed of being a transformational president, will turn out to be a mere hiccup in history, the interim guy who provided a tepid respite while Hillary and Jeb geared up to go at it.
Elections for president are supposed to make us feel young and excited, as if we’re getting a fresh start. That’s the way it was with J.F.K. and Obama and, even though he was turning 70 when he got inaugurated, Ronald Reagan.
But, as the Clinton library tardily disgorged 3,546 pages of official papers Friday — dredging up memories of a presidency that was eight years of turbulence held steady by a roaring economy and an incompetent opposition, a reign roiled by Hillarycare, Vince Foster, Whitewater, Webb Hubbell, Travelgate, Monica, impeachment, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Marc Rich — the looming prospect of another Clinton-Bush race makes us feel fatigued.
Our meritocratic society seems increasingly nepotistic and dynastic. There was a Bush or a Clinton in the White House and cabinet for 32 years straight. We’re Bill Murray stuck at 6 a.m. in Harold Ramis’s comic masterpiece, “Groundhog Day.” As Time’s Michael Crowley tweeted on Friday, “Who else is looking forward to potentially TEN more years of obsessing about Hillary Clinton’s past, present and future?”
The Clintons don’t get defeated. They get postponed.
<snip>
a major Romney donor told The Washington Post that “if Jeb Bush is in the race, he clears the field.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The big issue here is how "we" is defined. With the number of open primaries that we face early in the election year, I'd be surprised if we didn't get stuck with another weak candidate.
We have had one Clinton President and two Bush Presidents. I don’t see how that makes it a Monarch. FDR had more time then all of them put together.
A conservative populist would beat them both in a 3-way race.
[ If GHWB and GWB had not happened, Jeb would be a decent option. Unfortunately, history tells us that even if we win with Jeb, we lose in the long term. Both Bush’s - for whatever merits each have (and both do have positives) - we ended up a party in decline during their leadership. ]
The more I look back at history the more it seems that George Herbert Walker Bush’s presidency was the “Regime of Revenge of the Rockefeller Republican” and a slow lethargic dismantaling of a great many things that reagan did, both in policy and in destroying perception of the good reagan did for the party 8 years before that.
GHWB was a very very nasty man, the perception of him as a “wimp” almost seems to me to be facade the liberal media put up in order to somewhat protect him so he could do his job in dismantling reagan’s legacy. A consolation prize because they so badly lost tryign to get “Tank Boy” in there they settled for a behind the scenes dismantling...
I have no doubt that if GHWB had won a second term, while it would have been better than clintoon’s first term, it would have been horrible as well as the 1994 republican revolution would have turned into the Dems remaining solidly in control of congress...
“If the GOP manages to force Jeb down our throats, that will be the signal to me that they have no intention of defeating Hillary. That means that I will have no qualms about sitting out the election, or writing in the candidate of my choice in protest.”
If it looks that way in early 2016, you will have another choice.
Maybe not. Just as with McCain and Romney vs Obama, if it's Jeb vs hillary, the puppet masters have already won.,
Jeb is being groomed to run. I expect him to be in Iowa this summer.
[ A conservative populist would beat them both in a 3-way race. ]
We had one, or one that pretended to be in 1992, his name was H. Ross Perot. In the summer of 1992 he stood a great chance of winning, then he withdrew all of a sudden, for some reason, then when he got back in the damage had already been done and the democrat won..
Either he was paid off or his family was threatned...
I dare say ANYONE who runs as a 3rd party populist should commit themselves 10000% to winning and ignore ALL threats even if their threaten EVERYONE in their family, and record tyheir phone calls in case somethign happens to them and make sure they can Identify WHO made the threat should it be carried out.
The Perot Example brings two possibilites.
1. Either he was in on sbaotaging his campaign from the begining...
2. He scared the crap out of the establishment and the establishment felt they needed to make an example out of him by destroying his electoral responsibility.
Hillary really does not look well.
And Jeb will still lose to her.
At least unify around a protest candidate.
[ Maybe not. Just as with McCain and Romney vs Obama, if it’s Jeb vs hillary, the puppet masters have already won., ]
Even if you don’t beleive in “Puppet Masters” the “D.C. Establishmenmt” clearly wins either way.
If there is one thing that I know for certain, it is that I will not be voting for a Bush or a Clinton in 2016 Presidential. I just won’t.
Perot is a very encouraging example. An amateur (and more than a little strange) got 19 million votes.
To win a 3 way race, the conservative populist will have to be an experienced politician and candidate. Preferably a former governor.
Can’t stand the Bushes, can’t stand the Clintons.
Alex, I’ll take “Things that could make me pick-up and move to Costa Rica tomorrow” for a thousand.
Bush sr 4 years
WJC. 8 years
Bush jr 8 years
FDR. 12 years 1933 to 1945
You teaching Common Core math at Annapolis now?
;>)
With the election of daddy Bush in ‘88 the GOPe started the war with conservatives in their ranks. He couldn’t win a second term on his own. The 1994 mid-terms were entirely a conservative victory. Then we watched as the RINO elitists gradually buckled, became corrupt and spent like Democrats.
Dubya barely won in 2000 and if it wasn’t for the Swift boat vets in 2004, he would have lost.
With this family at the helm, the Republican party has sunk into virtual oblivion. They are corporatist RINOs of the highest order. They detest conservatives.
Yes, you did.
Good job.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.