Posted on 05/03/2009 6:05:21 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it's time for the Republican Party to give up its "nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.
"You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that," Mr. Bush said.
The former president's brother, often mentioned as a potential candidate in 2012, said President Obama's message of hope and change during the 2008 campaign clearly resonated with Americans.
"So our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia and the good old days in the [Republican] messaging. I mean, it's great, but it doesn't draw people toward your cause," Mr. Bush said.
"From the conservative side, it's time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past because, you know, things do ebb and flow."
The Florida governor joined former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor on Saturday at a small pizza parlor in Arlington for the inaugural event of the National Council for a New America (NCNA).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Jeb was my governor and he did a find job overall- but he and apparently a great many others in “leadership” of the GOP do NOT grasp the undercurrent of restlessness and profound distrust we have for the message he’s sending and toward government overall.
It’s not Reagan himself (though he’s missed) that we long for. It’s the forthrightness of the way he spoke, the clarity of his vision and abilty to communicate- smaller, less intrusive government is best for us all.
Listening to Jeb and others who think as he does you’d have to believe that what the GOP needs to do is become more pro-government...more Teddy Roosevelt, less Ronald Reagan. Nothing could be further from the truth.
They sound like fools, from Meghan McCain to Jeb Bush.
What would be USEFUL is for them to publicly debate the “tea party” faction of the electorate. Let Jeb sit down for an hour with Mark Levin and debate the role of government in the lives of citizens. THAT would be instructive. Debate actual ideas and principles, not policy and personalities.
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to promote some debates similar to Firing Line- the debates between William F Buckly and John Kenneth Galbraith were remarkable. They were civilized, they were intelligent and informed. Instead of being infuriated (as we find ourselves during these cable soundbites from opposing parties) after listening to them, we were better educated.
So, the best thing for him to do is to call for the the permanent burial of the Reagan legacy because, as he realizes, comparisons are odious.
Leni
Now, Bill Clinton doesn't look so bad in retrospect in comparison with what 8 years of Bush Presidency gave us in just 100 days of Barack Obama.
Full disclosure, I've felt this way about the Bush's since 1989, "go away, shut up and never, ever come back". That goes for Jeb too.
The Republicans had their chance when they controlled both houses and the Presidency and they utterly failed to make any significant movement to restore traditional American freedom as promised in the Constitution. On the contrary spending increased and freedom decreased.
Bush II was marginally better than Obama, but it's time now to pick up the tempo, pedal to the metal socialism. To the benefit of whom? Almost exclusively only the political elites.
Of course, all RINOs are required to bash Reagan, America's last great President.
She has my vote.
Time to leave the Bushes, RINOS and liberals behind!
They're on their own.
The answer of course is clear, let’s run McCain again. And again . . .
George H W Bush was the biggest mistake that Ronald Reagan ever made.
This is nothing new.
We need new blood and new faces. Jeb Bush will not help.
I had forgotten about Jeb's betrayal of Katherine Harris.
A GOP elephant is supposed to remember these things, LOL.
Leni
Two legs of the socialist beast, I call ‘em.
I for one will not leave Reagan and all he stood for behind, I will however leave a Rino dominated Republican party! If this crap continues the GOP is dead!
No more Clintons, No more Bushes!
The Democrats out spent us by 10-1, thanks to Obama’s lying he would accept public financing, as McCain did and so geared his campaign, then reneged late in the game and spent huge amounts of untraceable money. The hedge funds, etc., who bundled so much of that money, won’t be there for him next year or 2012.
Exactly!
Reagan's mistake was selecting George Bush as VP. Republican strategists wanted Texas. Reagan didn't need Texas with his landslide.
The other Bush's felt the same way about Reagan. Jeb Bush is the only one who says it out loud.
The Bush's and other “so called moderates” were leading us down the path of Socialism, slowly. Obama just speed-ed things up.
“NO MORE BUSHES” makes a great slogan for 2010.
Political dynasties produce inbred idiots. Jeb is worse, in that blind desire to win leads him to advocate collectivism, even though he knows it can’t be sustained financially.
Electing members of political families gave us the following collection of undesirables: rest of the Bush family, the Kennedy clan, ad nauseam.
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