Posted on 12/17/2011 9:09:56 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Since it has been an unusual presidential election cycle with various front-runners throughout the horse race for the 2012 Republican nomination, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and New York Times columnist David Brooks say there is the possibility that anything can happen.
On Friday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” in their regular weekly appearance, the two laid out scenarios that in any other election cycle would have been thought of as nearly impossible.
First, Dionne elaborated on a recent column about why he thinks former U.S. Ambassador to China and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman should not be ruled out as a winner in next year’s New Hampshire Republican primary.
“I said in the piece I was up in New Hampshire in Peterborough – I said it’s a bank shot, a long shot scenario,” Dionne said. “New Hampshire allows independents to cross over and vote in the Republican primary if they want to. Huntsman is well-liked among non-Republicans who see him as a reasonable guy. He’s actually much more conservative than all the liberals who like him realize, and that’s his second possibility, which is if Romney and Gingrich somehow destroy each other, or really go at each other – it creates an opening for another candidate. Is this a long shot as I said in the column? I wouldn’t bet $10,000 on it, but I think it’s at least a possibility.”
Brooks was skeptical of Dionne’s hypothesis, saying that Huntsman was “awkward” and lacked “crisp messaging,” “a theme,” and “a narrative.” However, he had his own long-shot prediction – the entry of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush into the race.
“I’m not holding out hope, but I do think it’s a remote possibility,” Brooks said of a Bush candidacy. “I do think the Republican Party is not going to nominate Newt Gingrich. If he emerges from the primaries, the early primaries as the front-runner, someone’s going to step in.”
If true, the GOP will soon be the third party.
2 bushes in the WH = 2 too many
I would like to listen to what Karl Rove has to say on this subject. /s
NO Bush’s
They are NOT conservatives.
so do i
I always look to poofers for my political insights.
For once, I agree with Jesse Jackson!
Jeb was adopted. He was born in Hawaii. A birth certificate will be forthcoming as soon as the new Photoshop software is installed in his computer.
He is not REALLY a “Bush”, so it is OK for him to run.
If his name was Jeb Stuart, he’d be leading the polls.
If his name was Jeb Lincoln, he still would be considered too favorable to illegals by the people around here.
And, by the way, I hate this trashing of the Bushes on Free Republic. It’s tacky and sick and he deserves better.
Take that idea, wrestle it to the ground and drive a stake in its heart. No more Bushes!!!!!
Let’s look at the players: WaPo, NPR, and the Old Grey Whore.
When was the last time Leftists supported the idea of a Bush in the WH?
I’ll vote for Newt just to watch their veins burst.
Bingo.
I reckon we "don't have a heart".
STOP!! Jeb did as much for Terry Schiavo as was humanly possible!! What did you wwant him to do, defy a judge and cause a constitutional crisis??? Jeb doesn’t have any blood on his hands but Michael and the judge have BUCKETS of BLOOD on theirs!!
Amen!!! The Bushes are DECENT, PATRIOTIC people and I am shocked at how some Freepers are so classless in their contempt of them.
That would certainly make things simple for Obama’s reelection campaign. As long as he’ll be running against Bush anyway; it would be convenient if there was a Bush to actually be on the ticket.
I don’t hate the Bushes and all their works with the white hot heat of a thousand suns. That said, the GOP primary electorate, and I think the electorate in general, is unlikely to be all that enthusiastic about voting for Jeb. If for no other reason that just four years after his brother stepped down, nominating him would be sort of like making “Christopher Hitchens meets Gulbuth The Rampant” jokes. It’s just too soon.
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