Posted on 05/11/2015 10:19:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The former governor of Florida, John (or as he prefers to be called, Juan) Ellis Bush, doesn't appear to have a lot of support among Republicans, as opposed to Republicans in Name Only (RINOs), who absolutely adore him.
But Juan isn't sweating it. He's rolling in dough, and more importantly, he's rolling in opponents.
Have you ever heard of a "straw" candidate? When you have a weak front-runner that can't reach 50 percent, often a third, or a fourth, or even a fifth candidate suddenly jumps into the race. If he has a name similar to that of the strongest opponent, or is at least a member of the same ethnic group, even better!
And the best straw of all is the one who doesn't even know he's a straw.
I think we have a lot of straws traipsing around New Hampshire these days. As Juan Ellis Bush might paraphrase Mao, let a hundred straws bloom.
Special Headline: Guess Who’s About To Go Bankrupt in America will Shock you
Look at the latest N.H. poll of GOP candidates. Juan Bush is in first place with a meager 15 percent, even though he's a "brand." But then, so are NBC News, Rolling Stone and Lumber Liquidators. Brand names can wear out their welcomes.
Bush's 15 percent represents the non-Republican wing of the Republican Party. The four candidates just barely behind him, real conservatives, have a combined 39 percent. If one or two of them dropped out ... Juan starts slip sliding away.
So who are the straws? Let's start with Mike Huckabee. He's from Hope, Ark., like you-know-who. In 2008, he ran a kamikaze anti-Mormon campaign against Mitt Romney and afterward was hired by Fox News. Coincidence?
I repeat, the best straw is one who doesn't know he's a straw. Maybe the Huckster truly believes he's a contender. Or perhaps Gov. Huckleberry was tired of his weekend slot at Fox and wants a weekday gig. When Huck announced, Karl Rove, the RINO's RINO, couldn't have possibly gushed any more over his candidacy (on Fox, naturally).
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is for real. He's from the Midwest. Suddenly Gov. John Kasich of Ohio is being touted as a contender. Did I mention Kasich also used to have a weekend show at Fox?
If there were one strong Hispanic candidate from a big state, he would be hard for Juan Bush to handle. Fortunately for Bush, there are two -- Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
Rubio is presently a greater threat, since he's from Juan's home state of Florida and has been running neck-and-neck in the polls with him. But Rubio's six-year term is up in 2016, so he'll have to make a decision whether he really wants to abandon his safe Senate seat at age 44. And guess what -- a young GOP congressman in the Sunshine State just announced he'll be running for Rubio's seat. Tighten the screws, boys. Force Marco to decide if he wants to roll the dice.
That would leave Cruz in the Hispanic bracket. He's from Texas, but fortuitously, former Gov. Rick Perry is back for more. Perry seems OK personally, but he's surrounded by the Barbour family from Mississippi. What's up with that? If you look up RINO in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of former Gov. Haley Barbour.
Last year they propped up a fading rubber stamp U.S. senator named Thad Cochran, who babbled on the campaign trail about doing "all kinds of indecent things with animals." You can watch the video on YouTube. But Cochran won in a runoff; the Barbours are good. They're also this close to the Bushes.
Perry is nowhere in the polls, but every campaign dollar he takes out of Texas is one Ted Cruz won't get. Cruz is an evangelical Christian, and guess what -- so is Huckabee! Your mission, Mike, is to drain off Cruz votes in Iowa. Maybe whisper that he's a Mormon. That worked so well against Mitt in 2007. As always, Mike, should any member of your team be captured, the secretary will disavow any knowledge ...
Am I being paranoid? I don't think so. When JFK first ran for Congress, he neutralized an opponent named Joe Russo by putting in another guy named Joe Russo. When Billy Bulger was in a jam against Dr. John deJong, suddenly a mystery candidate named DuPass appeared on the ballot. The list is endless. I just found one of them on the MBTA pension list, the brother of a local Mafioso. After his "campaign," this guy went on the T and now has a pension of $45,000 a year.
Juan Ellis Bush can't win a one-on-one fight with anyone. He needs all hands on deck. Even Lindsey Graham, believe it or not. Simultaneously, Bush muscles out any rival RINOs, first Mitt, next Chris Christie.
It's not that difficult if you've got the do-re-mi. And it was reported this week that Bush's super PAC is on its way to raising $100 million by the end of the month.
One hundred million. With $100 million, you can buy a lot of bales of hay. Or straws.
I am not sure I agree with his description that the next 4 are all “real conservatives”
I don’t know the details, but somehow, all these “candidates” have found a way to game the system. I bet if we dig deep,,, we’d discover they get to raise funds, bail eventually, and keep the change.
They cannot be deluded enough to think they have any chance at all.
I’ll go with Cruz; screw the rest of them.
“They cannot be deluded enough to think they have any chance at all.”
I think some of them may just be trying to get their message out there and get it part of the platform. That’s fine as long as they don’t bash the people that really have a chance.
Cruz is number one in my book, and Walker.
One thing about Cruz’s experience. He has a LOT of experience, and much of it I would imagine under “executive”. (State AG, lead on 30+ state petition to the SCOTUS, etc.)
But - how much executive experience did Reagan have before being Governor of California? That’s a huge job too and he did fine. I think the vision and values is more important. One can hire people to carry that vision out.
dumb article...
Reagan was the president of the screen actor guild!
This article asks the right questions and hits nails on heads.
All these candidates are in the race for a reason and that is clearly to split votes so the anointed one, Jeb Bush, can win the GOP presidential nomination.
Too many stalking horses to try to eliminate Cruz.
As soon as I heard Huckabee was running again, I knew he was in it for ulterior motive, again. He gave us McCain.
Here he goes again. He is the first 2016 candidate running this time to start attacking the other republicans - which assists in giving the ammunition to the democrats to use against the republican candidate.
He squeezed this in the middle of his 2016 announcement: “And if someone is elected to an office, then give the taxpayers what they’re paying for and what you said you wanted. If you live off the government payroll and want to run for an office other than the one you’re elected to, then have the integrity and decency to resign the one you don’t want and pursue the one you decided you’d rather have.” He is in it for J. E. Bush.
Rubio is presently a greater threat, since he's from Juan's home state of Florida and has been running neck-and-neck in the polls with him. But Rubio's six-year term is up in 2016, so he'll have to make a decision whether he really wants to abandon his safe Senate seat at age 44. And guess what -- a young GOP congressman in the Sunshine State just announced he'll be running for Rubio's seat. Tighten the screws, boys. Force Marco to decide if he wants to roll the dice. That would leave Cruz in the Hispanic bracket. He's from Texas, but fortuitously, former Gov. Rick Perry is back for more... surrounded by the Barbour family from Mississippi... Last year they propped up a fading rubber stamp U.S. senator named Thad Cochran... Cochran won in a runoff; the Barbours are good. They're also this close to the Bushes. Perry is nowhere in the polls, but every campaign dollar he takes out of Texas is one Ted Cruz won't get. Cruz is an evangelical Christian, and guess what -- so is Huckabee! Your mission, Mike, is to drain off Cruz votes in Iowa. Maybe whisper that he's a Mormon... Am I being paranoid? I don't think so. When JFK first ran for Congress, he neutralized an opponent named Joe Russo by putting in another guy named Joe Russo. When Billy Bulger was in a jam against Dr. John deJong, suddenly a mystery candidate named DuPass appeared on the ballot. The list is endless. I just found one of them on the MBTA pension list, the brother of a local Mafioso. After his "campaign," this guy went on the T and now has a pension of $45,000 a year.
Cruz/Walker 2016...
If Jeb is able to marginalize Republican contenders quickly then he can get the Republican party nomination. If Hillary is destroyed then Jeb might become President of the United States. All of this is possible. Will a President Jeb Bush spin all the bad things that Obama and Clinton did so that the bad deeds will be seen as good? We could see evidence of the two party system combining into one.
I got a call yesterday from a friend I haven’t seen, or heard from, in over 20 years. This guy has always been a staunch, dyed-in-the-wool Conservative, and still is. We got on the subject of politics and I told him that Ted Cruz was “my guy”. He’s a Texan, like me, and I would have bet he was for Ted also. Not! There was a long pause and then he said: “I can’t go for him, I’m a serious Birther.” What made it a little bizarre was, he believes that Obama WAS born in Hawaii. Oh well....... What can I say?
Part of an engineered rugby scrum intended to allow the elites to hand-pick Jeb Bush in a brokered convention.
No way in hell he could actually win enough primaries.
huckabee is a dangerous clown , he was shilling out snakeoil to cure cancer and diabetes
bump
Howie Carr wrote this.
WOW!
I thought it was rather well done.
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