Posts 134 and 154 are good indicators of people who would like to see Rush succeed in this, even though these posters are wholly pessimistic that this marriage will actually succeed. In my opinion, these posts at 134 and 154 are examples of people who aren't invested in the failure of this prospective marriage.
However, posts 12, 25, 56, 65, 78, 90, 119, 121, 146, 150, 161, 272, 288, 383, 438 are examples of posts by people who want to see this fail. You might read these and not see that in the posts. In my view, that is possible only if people are just writing these posts with no investment of expectation or personal responsibility. Basically, I would agree with someone who says they don't see a desire for failure, if these posts were so much blather. Certainly some of them are.
But people who posted these comments have their own reasons for doing so. And if there is anything I hold to be a truism, it is that people who make strong, declarative statements of what they view as fact don't like to be proven wrong.
Those posters have their own reasons. Divorce is shameful, it doesn't jibe with "family values", only liberal men date women 20 years their junior, his failed marriages indicate he isn't suited to marriage, she is exploiting it for the money and he looks stupid because he doesn't see it, whatever. Some people probably project their own bitterness into it, and think that if they have been unable to find happiness in marriage, the same is always going to be true with him. Some women may have had husbands leave them for younger women, who knows?
The point is, if these posters wanted Rush and his fiancee to succeed, all they had to do was include a conditional statement "I would like to see this work, but..." and that would do the trick.
I will concede that some of those posters might simply be pessimistic if I disregard the strong, actually, nearly overpowering, judgmental nature of many of them. FR is a open forum, and has less political correctness than some other forums, so if people take that approach, it is their choice.
I choose not to take that approach. I am an optimist, and I always think that perhaps this will work, even if it has failed many times in the past. I believe you must consider the past, but if you are ruled by it, that is often just as bad as disregarding it completely. Personally, I know several couples who have this type of age differential, and the marriages are still going strong over time, so I have history for thinking it may work.
But that won't stop me from keeping in mind that it might not succeed. I am just not invested in the concept that it will fail.
I think they are being realistic. I have a friend I have known for over 50 years. He gave up after five divorces. He gets no slack from me.