Posted on 03/14/2015 3:43:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
You have to give a certain amount of credit to politicians who are able to maintain a level of consistency, if nothing else. Stopping in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush was faced with yet another series of questions on the subject which seems to have sunk his prospects with conservatives this cycle. When asked yet again about a possible path to citizenship for illegals and a chance to “come out of the shadows” in an orderly fashion, Bush doubled down and let all of you haters out there know that he’s the grown up in the room here.
Jeb Bush said he would be open to allowing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and said his position on immigration is “the grown-up plan.”
The former Florida governor, a vocal supporter of granting legal status to some undocumented immigrants as part of a broader immigration overhaul, offered a robust defense of his immigration policy during a discussion with local business leaders here.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Well, anything you propose is amnesty,’ but that’s not a plan,” Mr. Bush said during a discussion with local business leaders here. “That’s a sentiment, that’s not a plan. I think the best plan, the most realistic plan, the grown up plan, if you will, is once you control the border and you’re confident it’s not going to be another magnet, is to say, ‘Let’s let these folks achieve earned legal status where they work, where they come out of the shadows.’”
Later, during a brief exchange with reporters, Mr. Bush said he could also be supportive of a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally – as he did at one time – but said there currently isn’t sufficient political support for it.
It’s an interesting strategy to be sure, and one which leads us to believe that Jeb honestly believes he can run the table in the primaries without any serious conservative support. Our last survey of you, our readers, shows Bush standing steady with, er… one percent support. This is relatively unchanged since the beginning of the winter. And who knows? Maybe he’s not entirely crazy… the RCP average currently has him in second place behind Walker by a fingernail, well inside the margin of error. Of course, at this point in the cycle these polls are all over the place.
The scattershot nature of these numbers should be enough of a warning about taking them too seriously. McClatchy and Fox News actually have Bush in the lead, though the Fox numbers are getting a little stale at this point. PPP has Walker well out in front, and for some reason CNN thinks Huck is running away with it. But since we’re on the topic of wide ranging opinions, national views regarding the rest of the candidates versus the conservative snapshot you find at Hot Air is rather fascinating also.
Really, the only area of national vs conservative consensus at the moment seems to be Walker. He’s a runaway favorite here and manages to be at the top of the pack, albeit with a much more slender margin, among the rest of the nation. Bush, as already noted, is completely upside down. The nation at large sees him as at least a viable first choice while he’s barely a blip on the radar for conservatives. Ted Cruz is the only strong challenger to Walker here, but nationally he’s hovering near the back end of the main pack at 4.4%. We get back to some sort of parity with Marco Rubio. He’s in third place with our readers, but it’s a very distant third. His seventh place finish in the RCP poll of polls sounds a lot worse, but he’s got a still almost respectable 4.8% which isn’t that far off from the 6% he pulls at Hot Air.
The two other biggest disparities at this point seem to be Ben Carson and Chris Christie. The New Jersey Governor is still seen as at least a possibility among Republicans nationally, though he’s fallen a long way, but among the Hot Gas crowd, he managed an entire four votes out of more than 1,500. Carson didn’t do much better here with 12 votes, but nationally he’s in 4th place with more than 10%. (And that figure definitely keeps him in the competitive hunt along with Walker and Bush.)
Getting back to Jeb, both immigration and Common Core seem to be his downfall among the faithful. Statements like this one from New Hampshire aren’t going to do him any favors either. But could it disqualify him? I seem to recall seeing a pretty huge revolt against Romney last time, but he still made it across the finish line in fairly strong shape. Food for thought at least.
Related: Daniel Doherty at Townhall offers his own thoughts on the recent polling here. He thinks pretty highly of you guys!
All of us little people just don’t understand that its beneficial to the employers of illegal aliens to allow them to invade and colonize our country.
Jebster has already got the nomination sewn up. The Cheap Labor Express has already paid the RNC for their amnesty candidate.
Plan B should be formed for a strong third party run.
The GOP is hopelessly compromised.
I never thought of betraying your oath of office as “the grown up plan” for dealing with an invasion of foreign national illegal aliens. But then I’m not a Bush.
Mexican politicians for all their faults don’t betray Mexico. Of course Jeb Bush doesn’t either for what that’s worth.
Jeb is exactly what The Cheap Labor Express wants in a candidate. If he wins then the voters have endorsed amnesty. He’s not going to win, of course.
He is the designated loser, just like McCain and Romney.
McCain said No Amnesty, but nobody believed him. He had just authored McCain/Kennedy.
Romney said No Amnesty, but anyone who believed anything from Romney hasn’t seen the 1990’s tapes. He ran to Drunk Teddy’s left for Senate.
We haven’t been allowed to vote for anyone who wasn’t on board The Cheap Labor Express since Reagan.
The purpose of the GOP today is to block conservatives from power.
Ted Cruz is the only one running who might not betray us.
Jeb certainly will.
Krispy Kreme, Rubio, Rand Paul are not running. There all amnesty guys anyway.
Huckabee and Carly are on the payroll just to disrupt things so Ted Cruz is not nominated.
The money and power do not want us to be able to elect anyone who actually WOULD stop the invasion.
They want to steal our country
You’re right; the “grown up plan” would actually make people whine and cry at the “cruelty” and “unfairness”.
...and that’s not even considering what would happen in the case of considering them to be foreign invaders.
I don’t know why Jeb would be so obstinate as to make implications that he has the one plan that is intellectually above everyone elses, and then call himself the “grown up”.
Even if you think our government bears ALL of the guilt on this issue (which I do), certainly created this problem willfully and with rewards, when they long ago purposely failed our border enforcement and our national security, certainly dog whistled impoverished Mexicans over here, and continued it for decades, all of them, without penalty, and all of it for the lucrative sake of the Chamber of Commerce and clean California toilets and manicured lawns, Jeb Bush should have allowed another voice of opinion.
Seems to me that given that Uncle Sam allowed every single solitary footprint across our border, illegally, that it should fall to the American people to draw conclusions on this.
After all, WE footed the bill.
Do those things and illegal aliens will deport themselves and pay for the trip.
@$$hat.
The more I learn about the Bushes the more I despise them.
This clown seems to be the "retarded bush" on the Ranch.
Scarily, he reminds me of a gofer I worked with at a local large County, and during the early 21st century, when Dubya was president, he ranted and raved constantly about running against him in a future election until, after a couple of years, he quietly retired on mental disability. Not surprisingly, everyone else tolerated him in silence. PC "affirmatice Action," and all that.
Add delusion and arrogance to financial "entitlement," and we have another example of a rich kid buying a high public office as his private totalitarian playground.
We have too many of those already.
More Twilight Zone stuff...
No, Jebbie Boy, it isn’t. It’s a childish little brat’s plan. Now put down your squirt gun and sit down.
Jebbie just awarded the beast some medal. Aren’t they on the same ticket? /s
Is he trying to lose?
If you did the first two and the last two, you wouldn’t need the huge presence at the border.
No he’s trying to get you to hold your nose for amnesty.
The Republican Party wants you to endorse amnesty by voting for Jebster.
October of 2016 FreeRepublic will be aflame with floggings of conservatives that they HAVE to vote for this Democrat in an R jersey. Otherwise you’re electing whoever the Democrats run or some such nonsense.
My vote is mine. I give it every election without fail. I voted for Bob Barr in 2008, he was the only eligible candidate on my ballot. I held my nose for Romney.
Jebster will not get my vote, EVER.
Someone other than R or D will if they both offer amnesty.
I would add one thing, make their country of origin pay us for the cost of their citizens. They would shutdown their side of the border ASAP if they had to pay for their foreign nationals in US dollars.
well done!
That’s probably true but we need a more secure border for more than illegal aliens looking for jobs.
I put forth my recommendations as things that should be able to be accomplished without enough opposition to stop it. Given a GOP House with enough spine to fight for it. I believe what I’ve suggested is enough to put an end to most of the problem with the least economic and political pain.
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