Posted on 01/16/2014 8:51:08 AM PST by IChing
It isn’t a smart bet to completely stab a fork in Chris Christie’s presidential prospects at this point, so speculation about the field of likely Republican candidates for 2016 continues to gyrate all over the map.
A couple of days ago I received a disturbing message in an email from a Democrat–yes, I actually correspond with one of those–in reply to me expressing my opposition to runaway big-government entitlement programs which create more and more dependent democrat voters. It went like this:
‘The right has simply not offered anyone that is palatable to most. I think the majority are centrists. The right call for less government, yet they are okay with interfering with decisions as personal as reproductive choices. Geez. And take a look at VA. What a joke. There are bigger and more important issues at hand than to worry about oral sex among teenagers. This is the kind of sh*t that turns people off!
‘You guys need to throw together a dream team for 2016. Otherwise, you will have another “hard eight” lol
‘Maybe Jeb/Rubio?’
I immediately retched a little upon reading that.
But the thing that turned me off wasn’t the allusion to a recent Virginia Republican state senator’s widely misunderstood legislative proposal to give law enforcement an improved measure to go after sex predators, it was what I took (at the moment) as an offensive and obscene reference to a possible Jeb Bush/Marco Rubio ticket for the next presidential election.
“Dream team,” huh? Bush/Rubio? More like a conservative’s nightmare, was my initial impression. Though apparently a liberal Democrat’s dream, yes. Because so many of us conservatives know that running another Bush is such an unwelcome prospect to so many voters–in all segments of the political spectrum–that the prospect of a Democrat presidential win might be made more possible by nominating Jeb. Dry heaves on that idea, at first.
As if this nightmare we’re now living hasn’t gone on long enough, with Barack Hussein Obama illegally occupying the Oval Office and wantonly abusing us day in and day out, year after year. Just what are we going to be dealing with next?
Hillary Clinton as the Democrat nominee is perhaps a foregone conclusion, and meanwhile many conservatives sense with trepidation a re-run of a time-worn, unsavory, and failed scenario–that the GOP establishment elites are looking around for who they should foist on us hapless grassroots conservatives as the 2016 GOP installment of “Democrat lite.”
In an article in Politico from last November titled Jeb Bush 2016? Ben White wrote,
‘New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is getting all the attention as the flavor of the month for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. But there is growing chatter in elite New York financial circles that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is giving more serious consideration to getting in the race, especially if it appears at any point that Christie is not drawing big national appeal beyond the northeast.
‘Several top GOP sources on Wall Street and in Washington said this week that Bush has moved from almost certainly staying out of the 2016 race to a “30 percent chance” of getting in.’
The article anonymously cites a former Republican office holder who now works in the financial industry as someone who is close to the former Florida governor and who, having spoken with him, said that Jeb is already thinking about it very seriously and is now more inclined to get in the race. That source is quoted as saying:
“The three names I hear most often are Christie, Bush and Ryan, but no one is in any hurry to decide among them; they all are both reasonable people and acceptable to the conservative base.”
Acceptable to the conservative base? Really? It’s a serious question, as far as I’m concerned.
The Politico piece went on:
‘Those on Wall Street who support the idea of a Jeb Bush run say the idea of Bush fatigue is overblown. And they say that Bush’s strengths as a policy wonk and conservative with crossover appeal could wipe out any concerns about his well-worn last name.
‘“He is thinking about it,” one person close to Bush said, citing Bush’s desire to unite a party currently splintered between its pro-business roots and its tea party wing led by Cruz and Rand Paul of Kentucky. “And if Christie can’t break out, Jeb is the only proven national mainstream candidate who could keep the Cruz/Paul wing at bay and have a shot at winning a general election.”’
Do we really have to settle for someone–and I don’t necessarily only mean Jeb Bush, mind you–who sometimes significantly defects from what we believe should be the direction of our country, in order to make a play for enough of those elusive “independents” and cross-over voters, because powerful interests tell us that’s the only way to win?
The big money, country-club republican powers-that-be appear to be mainly inclined toward a “three-peat,” to continue the wonderful successes of the last two moderate choices in John McCain & Mitt Romney. They’re considering throwing their Wall Street weight behind some squishy, malleable RINO(republican-in-name-only) like Chris Christie–who is more prone to caving in on classic conservative platform issues, out of fear of alienating illegal aliens, fans of illegal aliens, and moderate swing-voters, than defending the Constitution, the family, our borders & interior, real budget discipline, and the traditional American way of life/values.
One key question is, is the pattern of presidential candidacy of moderate Republicans, which serves to alienate so much the staunch conservative base of the GOP in favor of trying to win enough of a margin of voters in the moderate middle, a viable and well-advised general election strategy?
There is a compelling argument to be made (as Rush Limbaugh does regularly) for the alternative approach of the GOP instead nominating someone who draws a hard line and sticks to their guns on a genuine conservative agenda, thereby really galvanizing and exciting the grass-roots base of voters and drawing along–by sheer force of momentum and general influence–enough of those more toward the middle who otherwise don’t normally follow politics and issues very closely, to go over the top.
It may–or it may not–be true that Tea Party favorites like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul really are that polarizing in their messaging and images that we can’t afford to run them. As far as presidential elections go, do we even have a choice, when it comes to whoever dominates the TV debates, the fundraising, and the primaries? Of course we do. To whatever extent realistic, that is.
What we do need is at least one solidly conservative, well-qualified/funded, widely popular and charismatic candidate who can somehow withstand and prevail over the certain, unfair, and otherwise withering all-out distortion and attacks from the Democrat-dominated major media, and also from the unfortunate and disgusting attacks from RINO figures within the Republican establishment, to win 270 electoral votes in the end. It sure is a lot to ask for, but we have to shoot for the best we can find, within reason.
Who is it, or who will it be? Was my liberal Democrat correspondent anywhere close to being right in saying that a Jeb Bush/Marco Rubio ticket is the stuff our dreams are made of, or is that really just a Hillary supporter’s sick fantasy?
Regardless, I'm fairly optimistic that whoever the republican nominee is will beat whoever the democrat nominee is.
If the Republicans take the Senate, then Hillary might be too busy testifying about Benghazi for the next two years to worry about campaigning for President.
Bush the candidate - I stay home.
Save the lectures.
...Those on Wall Street who support the idea of a Jeb Bush run say the idea of Bush fatigue is overblown...
Who on Wall Street said this and have they ever voted GOP.
Voters are tired of The Toons and Da Bushes.
Excellent point! Hahahaha!
To quote the Spartans:
"IF."
Groan....
Jeb Bush 2016
It’s his turn!
That actually sounds good, Palin will have plenty of ammo if she runs as an independent - Do we really want another Bush or Clinton - more of the same crony politics?
I'm the converse, farily certain the little Republican nominee eve if it is Big Jebbie will lose.
You don’t need to stay home, just don’t vote for Jebbie now or ever.
I'm the converse, fairly certain the little Republican nominee, if it is Big Jebbie or Bigger Christie, will lose.
Fixed it.
You have a higher opinion of Republican senators than I do.
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