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I’d give T-Paw a break being in MN, which has been trending GOP but is still tough, that the GOP got blasted there in 2006 and 2008 is not something I think you could blame him for, in national rat landslide years the low hanging fruit is gonna fall. Huck had no excuse coming from an increasingly conservative southern state for the embarrassingly pitiful condition of Arkansas Republicans.

As for Jeb, if Lawton Chiles hadn’t convinced senile voters that Jeb would somehow steal their social security he’d have won in 94 and almost certainly been President instead of George and probably would done at least slightly better (would be hard not to).

I’ll give him his props for running the Florida GOP well but he’s still a shamnesty supporting neocon who wouldn’t make a very good President.

A Bush is the absolute last person to consider for 2016. Even if the Bush name wasn’t mud, the monarchy thing, I know Dowager Queen Hilly is running but could you imagine the last THREE Republican Presidents being a New England bred RINO and his 2 sons? That’s insane.

As Auho2republican has said if his name was Jeb Smith he’d have been the nominee in either 2008 or 2012. Too bad for him it’s not.

>>> Bush 1988: It was his turn.
Bush 1992: It was his turn. He was the incumbent. He lost.
Dole 1996: It was his turn. He lost.
Bush 2000: He bucked McCain, who’s turn it was. He won.
Bush 2004: It was his turn. He was the incumbent. He won.
McCain 2008: It was his turn. He lost.
Romney 2012: It was his turn. He lost.
I see a pattern here. When a Pubbie gets the nomination who bucks the “turn,” he wins. <<

I actually think this pattern is likely to be broken in 2016. The person who could claim it was their "turn" by virtue of being "runner up" from 2012 is either Santorum or Newt (who came in a distance third but his supporters like to pretend he was "last conservative standing" because everyone else besides him realized Romney had gotten an insurmountable lead)

Another "tradition" that was broken in the most recent presidential primary was the idea that "the road to the nomination leads through South Carolina". We were reminded over and over again that every Republican nominee since Reagan in 1980 had won South Carolina before winning nationally, and that nobody had gotten the GOP nomination without taking that primary.

Newt took it in the 2012, but this time the road through South Carolina took him to Georgia and nowhere else.

I not only think Santorum and Gingrich would have a difficult time getting the nomination in 2016, I can't imagine the GOP establishment would throw their weight behind either of them. Santorum is way too much of a socially conservative firebrand for them, and Newt is... Newt.