[sphinx]

The Jeb-bashing is being overdone. Bush is a conventional, moderately conservative establishment figure. His name created some headwinds, which was unfair to Jeb but life is unfair. He might have been able to successfully deal with that. In retrospect, I suspect that his biggest problem is simply that he had been out of elective politics for too long and had lost touch. He did not realize until far too late that the base is in revolt. He instead took the base for granted and from day one focused on running to the center, as the non-threatening, moderately center right candidate who could reach across the aisle. The question in my mind is whether he had anyone in his inner circle who tied to tell him how profoundly he was misreading the electorate. If I were one of his consultants, I would strategically leave this race off my resume.

Of the Bush brothers, Jeb was always considered the more conservative of the two. Had he won his first gubernatorial race against Lawton Chiles, he would very possibly have been the Republican presidential nominee in 2000, and a fine president. He lost that race, unfortunately, because the Democrats ran a scare campaign in the closing days of the campaign, which Bush was leading, letting the elderly voters of Florida know that if elected Governor, Jeb was going to eliminate Social Security. And so history is made.

Hindsight is cheap, but Bush last year should have come out of the box swinging. He needed to confront the past squarely, with "I've been out of politics for some time. The world has changed. The issues have evolved. And I've had the opportunity to rethink some things. Here is where we are now. The country is in crisis. And this is what we need to do now." With that, he should have gone on the attack against Obama, Hillary, Bernie, et.al., and stayed on the offensive. This could have been done in a civil way. But Jeb seemed to think he was still in 2000, and that moderate managerialism was the ticket. He rode a false premise into the ditch. And poor John Kasich still hasn't figured it out.

[goldstategop]

Its well-deserved.

We don’t need a nerd for President. We need a leader.

Jeb is many things but being a leader ain’t one of them.

Poor Jeb he deserved with increasing derision until he was forced out of the race.

[KC_Conspirator]

He instead took the base for granted and from day one focused on running to the center, as the non-threatening, moderately center right candidate who could reach across the aisle. The question in my mind is whether he had anyone in his inner circle who tied to tell him how profoundly he was misreading the electorate. If I were one of his consultants, I would strategically leave this race off my resume.

How about the possibility that the consultants he hired echoed the same misdreadings that he had? In a sane world, would leave this off my resume too, but the same GOPe consultant failures keep hiring one another back.

[mad_as_he$$]

Lot of assumptions in that post. Did you cover the cocaine use, my ADHD kick ed.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

So how many President Bushes would be enough for you? Five? Ten?

[RinaseaofDs]

Pro Amnesty. Tone deaf.

[Calvin Locke]

He instead took the base for granted

Actually, he said he didn't need the base to win, did he not?

He's a feckless, clueless elitist that is in bed with both the crony capitalists, and their liberal counterparts.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Yeb! wanted to turn the USA into North Mexico.

The people rejected him because they don’t want that.

[Lazamataz]

The Jeb-bashing is being overdone.

Buckle in. We've only just started.

Of the Bush brothers, Jeb was always considered the more conservative of the two.

Well yeah. But that's like saying Harry Reid is the more conservative of Pelosi-Reid-Obama.

[BobL]

You don’t have to be in ‘elective politics’ to listen to the callers on Rush, Hantity, and others.

But you DO HAVE TO LISTEN!

Bush could have listened and maybe stuck around a bit longer. Bush also had tremendous money - which can buy you polling. But you HAVE TO LISTEN to the results and stop thinking that the pollsters only called up right-wing kooks.

Jeb may be the face of things now, but he showed that WE WERE RIGHT - the Republican Party is COMPLETELY OUT OF TOUCH with its voters...the entire party supported him, and he wound up with 5% of the votes.

If the party leaders don’t look SERIOUSLY at just how out of touch they are, they will soon find themselves on the street.

[MinorityRepublican]

I like Jeb. He’s not as charismatic as his older brother. But I agree with him on being “gentle” with immigrants. My sister in law is Mexican. I love Mexican food. So call me a traitor. I don’t care. Check out my profile and you’ll see I’ve been here since 2000. Whoever wins the primary, I’m going to cast my vote for him against Hillary (or Bernie).

P.S. I’m in favor of building the wall and stricter border controls. But deport all the illegals? Get real.