Posted on 03/11/2005 9:04:10 PM PST by Coastal
WASHINGTON -- Nationally prominent Republicans are talking to each other about the possibility of getting Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to accept the vice-presidential nomination in 2008 since he has ruled out running for president that year.
Bush probably would be the front-runner for the party's next presidential nomination if he only had a different last name. GOP politicians agree that five Bush presidential nominations out of the last six campaigns would be one too many for the country to take. But second place on the ticket might be acceptable to voters.
A footnote:
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalledger.com ...
Tommy Franks--now you're talking.
He won't take a VP position.
Jeb Bush/Condi Rice 2008
They want Governor Bush on the ticket to make Florida less of a battleground.
Except Dole never became President. Was his 1996 campaign run by idiots? WTC-1, Waco, Somalia, Hillary Care, not to mention the various sexual allegations à la Paula Jones and the likes. How can you lose against with that ammo?
Tommy Franks -- great general, but not all great generals would make good presidents, he wouldn't either.
Rice as President? Wow, who would have thought that a pro-abortion candidate would win the hearts of so many Freepers! Way to go guys!
And this will hurt Elizabeth, how? Question is more serious than it may appear.
Your choice?
No Senators at the top of the ticket...not a good track record.
Sad to say and to admit, Bill Clinton was and is simply that good. Much like what was said in a SNL skit: he was superman; you couldn't kill him with kryptonite
Bob Dole just couldn't bring himself to make people believe he wanted to win, never mind that he could win. MHO.
A Jeb Bush/Condi Rice ticket would be my choice for two reasons: I really do think it would be great for the country and I think it's an unbeatable ticket.
See RayChuang88's post -- it's post #10:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1361287/posts?page=10#10
for the reasons that Jeb would be an excellent candidate, add to that brilliant, stylish Condi pulling the votes of women and blacks, and we'd have a landslide.
Frankly, I can't think of anyone else who would come close to having that high probability of win.
Clinton was great at politicking but I won't believe for a second he was unbeatable. Dole and his campaign simply fell flat and were unable to make the case. What a waste of an election year. Surely someone better could've ran.
krb/bush
I think we're pretty much in agreement. The campaign kinda reminded me of Bush the Elder's defeat. I kept waiting for Bush to come out of his corner to go toe-to-toe with the boy wannabe from Arkansas, but he never quite made it to the face off. Best I can describe it is, to misquote Colin Powell, George the Elder just didn't have that fire in the belly to win another term. So, the wannabe got to be. Dole gave me that same kind of empty sensation. As you say, his campaign fell flat.
Condoleezza Rice is exceptional.
He seems like a really nice guy. He has said he doesn't want to run though, but don't they all say that?
I think Condi is great, but I am not sure she would be perceived as being ready to run for president. She may well be ready, but perceptions matter -- she would need to get elected. But 8 years as a VP under Bush, would make her a shoo-in afterwards. And if we would get 8 years of Jeb/Condi, then another 8 with Condi as president, by the end of that Democrats would be extinct -- they would have all moved to France.
What exactly has Rice done to deserve consideration for being on the ticket? She has no electoral successes to speak of. It seems people support her only because of the Dick Morris "only she can beat Hillary" analysis.
Rice probably could reduce the landslide margin by which Hillary would beat another GOP candidate among blacks, and possibly among women. But whose to say those gains wouldn't be offset by a loss of support from the base? We know she is liberal on racial preferences (like Bush), so that probably bodes ill for her stance on other social and cultural issues.
Where is she on marriage? Abortion? Immigration? Second Amendment? Judges?
She's probably closer to Giuliani on each of those than to any winning Republican, and if that is true, she'd be just as unacceptable as Giuliani.
If I'm wrong, then I'd be happy to reconsider her. But to support her in the mistaken belief that only she can beat Hillary is misguided, in my opinion.
It won't hurt her at all. That's the weird thing about it. Americans have never and will never read about the blood trail because the story is spiked in this nation.
All this talk of femme candidates is sorta silly, though. The GOP will deliver the first openly-gay nomination before it backs a woman for President. That foundation was being laid as early as the 2000 convention when, instead of giving the slot to some pro-lifer like Keyes, they proudly featured their openly homosexual Republican speaker at the convention.
Mark my words.
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