Posted on 03/31/2005 4:49:44 AM PST by Saundra Duffy
TOO BAD JEB BUSH DOESN'T KNOW REAGAN'S SECRET by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr.
March 29, 2005
I know something right now that Jeb Bush doesn't know. I know he made the biggest political blunder of his life when he decided not to intervene and save Terri Schiavo from starving. How can it be that I, a pastor of an inner-city church, thousands of miles from Florida, have knowledge about this that Jeb doesn't have? Simple - I know an old Baptist deacon, and Jeb doesn't.
My old friend is named "Mack." He fought in World War II. When I was 13, he took me to a Baptist church for the first time. I was the boy next door. I became a Baptist preacher as a result of going to church with Mack and his family back in the fifties. His wife died a few years ago and Mack moved back to Vernon, Texas. I call him once a week just to chat. He turned 88 last Friday.
Mack is my weather vane. Whatever he says is what the American people think - in their hearts. He's way more accurate than any CBS poll, because the wording of polls often confuses people. You never get a confused answer from Mack. "Nope, Jeb Bush was wrong. He'll never be President if he doesn't find some way to save that girl." And that is exactly what will happen, because Mack is never wrong - ever - when it comes to knowing what the average American thinks deep down inside.
That's how I know something Jeb Bush doesn't know. See, Jeb has great strategists, genius politicos, the finest advisors money can buy. But he doesn't have Mack - or anybody like him.
That was President Reagan's secret, you know. When Reagan was a young man, he spent a few hours every week in a barber shop in Dixon, Illinois. With an actor's imagination, Reagan was later able to transport himself back to that Dixon barber shop. And in his mind he would ask the old men, Baptist deacons, Sunday School superintendents, gas station owners, druggists - the old men of that small town in the heartland - what they thought he should do. "Fellas, what do you think I ought to do about Terri Schiavo?" Reagan would have asked the old men in the barber shop of his actor's vision. They never let him down - not on Grenada, not on Libya, not on Reykjavik, never! No one ever quite figured out how he always seemed to know what the people in the heart of America wanted him to do. That was Reagan's secret.
But, you see, Jeb Bush was raised a little too high-toned to hang around some old men at a barber shop. He probably had his dad's hair stylist give him a trim now and then. Trust me, a hair stylist is not the same as an old-time barber, and George H. W. Bush, his dad, is not the same as the old men in Reagan's boyhood barber shop. Been in Washington too long. Remember, his dad was the son of a Senator.
I wish Jeb Bush knew a couple of old Southern Baptist deacons - men in their mid-eighties - World War II guys. Just a couple of old Baptist deacons, retired druggists, or gas station owners. There must be a lot of old guys like that up in Jacksonville. He could call Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist there. He could say, "Dr. Vines, I need a couple of real old retired deacons, the older the better. Need 'em just to talk things over once in a while."
It must be old men, remember. Women have a way of being swayed by the sentiment of a twisted poll or slanted news story.
What would those old men tell him? Why, I already know, because I talked to my friend Mack, in Vernon, Texas today. The old men would tell him, "Jeb, get in there and save that girl. Do whatever it takes." That's what a World War II guy would tell Jeb Bush. And if he listened to an old man like that, he'd be a front-runner for President in 2008. The old man would not be fooled by polls. He'd tell Jeb Bush what the Americans really think in their hearts. They'd say, "Yep, that's the way Grandpa would do it. I'm glad there's still somebody around like him." And the red states would turn to crimson - for Jeb.
If he listens to guys like Karl Rove and the "poll watchers" you can kiss him goodbye. He will never again play a major role in politics. Too bad Jeb doesn't know Reagan's secret. That's why he won't send in the National Guard - as Reagan (and Mack) would. And that's why, unlike Reagan, he will never be President.
CLICK HERE TO TELL JEB BUSH THAT REAGAN WOULD SEND IN THE NATIONAL GUARD. JEB BUSH'S E-MAIL IS JEB.BUSH@MYFLORIDA.COM
(END OF ARTICLE)
You can read Dr. Hymers' sermons each week on the Internet at www.rlhymersjr.com. Click on "Sermon Manuscripts."
You know what, instead of blaming Jeb for not pulling a Reno, how about changing hearts and minds on the culture of death..
While Terri lies dying the most heinous death imaginable, Jeb Bush is enjoying meals, drinks and life. While Terri lies suffering and dying and her family rejected and abused. Jeb Bush continues to do NOTHING!
This article is "spot on". Thank you. I thought so, too. It's written by an ordinary man about ordinary people. I loved it. I love "Mack".
The article is about his political future. Jeb blinked, whether for good reasons or not, and the fire went out of the belly of many who would otherwise support him in the future.
That's quite different than what you inferred.
"Mack" is my kinda guy. Jeb Bush is a coward.
They all want to have plugs pulled and cords stepped on, so they say. They're all a-twitter with the idea that the few bucks in their "estates" would be eaten up before their northern-living adult kids could get any of it. Plus, they don't want to be a "burden" to their adult kids who visit them once a year during beach season.
Jeb may have more of a pulse on Florida folks than one might think. If he could find a pulse on half of them, that is.
Leni
And by default help elect more pro-culture of death democrats, real smart.
'Xactly.
You won't find me voting for a man who doesn't have the moral courage to save a woman from being murdered.
We have all had to sit here everyday and watch as Terri is starved to death.
It's driven some people over the edge, they have resorted to violence trying to find a way to do something, anything to stop this inhumane killing of a handicapped woman.
I'm so angry and disgusted that I've been forced to participate in the practice of concentration camps.
He should have done what he needed to do and to heck with political fallout. Sometimes we are called upon to make a stand for human decency. I believe he, among others failed Terri and our Country.
So this guy would kill police and bystanders to "save" a woman who is, for all practical purposes, already dead. Jeb did the best he could and 2/3rds of Florida is already mad at him. If Jeb did somehting like that, he would be recalled in a heartbeat.
Greer is a madman. Jeb Bush has the power to stop him. Never forget: Florida Dept of Children and Families has outstanding charges against Michael Schiavo that need to be investigated but Jeb Bush will NOT demand an investigation. He's letting the evidence (Terri) be destroyed right before our very eyes. He is going to pay a heavy price for this. A heavy price.
I'll take "Mack's" word against yours any day. I'll take "Mack's" word against any EXPERT you throw up. "Mack" is where it's at and you think he's a nut. Ha!
A discussion that needs to be had: what can be done with a corrupt legal system, when it is Hell-bent on killing an innocent woman?
I heard the usually almost supernaturally-even-tempered Hugh Hewitt actually shout a guy off his show yesterday. He did not let the guy make his case, he just cut him off, told him he was nuts, and told him to shut up.
The guy was advocating that the judge's orders should be disregarded, and whatever needed to be done should be done to override them.
Now, I'm not saying I agree with that perspective. But I'd like to hear it really discussed; and I have some hard questions I'd like to ask.
One I'd've asked Hugh (and maybe you) is, "If not now, then when? What would be 'going too far,' and what would we do about it?" Here is a judge, NOT in a criminal trial, ordering the slow, miserable, degrading torture-death of an innocent and helpless woman. The whole nation sits and watches. Some idiots make jokes or defend the status quo. Others wring our hands and do what we can — which, as it turns out, isn't bloody much. But how far is too far? When is talking not enough? If not this case, then which?
Those are just a few of my questions, and I have many more. Like how are we different from the "good Germans" of Hitler's day? What moral perspective do we have from which we can, ever again, criticize them? Would our Fathers have tolerated this? I honestly wonder what people like Hugh — whose perspective I always value — would have been saying in 1775, 1776. Would they have been advocating dur process, calmness, orderliness?
Honestly, I am not asking these as leading questions, because the God's honest truth is, I don't know the answer. But this gnaws at me, eats at me, through the day, and while I don't think that the Bush brothers and the legislatures have done nothing, I still am haunted with the feeling that they've not done enough, that there MUST have been something more they could have done -- that the nation that can free two whole countries in a few years' time could have rescued one helpless woman from a miserable death we literally would not permit to a dog.
So you would have the Governor disregard andy court decision he does not agree with? What is the alternative? Do away with courts and have the President or Governor decide legal matters? Or appoint people that will rule based on their personal opinions and feelings rather than neutrally interpret the law. Sorry, but I don't support building biased courts.
That still doesn't change the fact that Jeb Bush is more electable that the Klayman, Keyes, Buchanan and Randall Terry.
Regardless of what you, the Baptists and "Mack" think.
That stunt alone let the world know just what Jeb was, a true politician.That press conference will be the undoing of Jeb just as Terri's death will be the undoing of the Death Trio.
To me courts have to be fair and balanced.. It should not lean one way.
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