Posted on 12/26/2014 8:12:00 PM PST by SeekAndFind
In mid-December, Jeb Bush announced his intention to explore a presidential bid. If he runs and wins the Republican nomination and then the election, he will be the third President Bush in 25 years. That unprecedented prospect has left many wondering: In a republic like ours, is it proper for one family to fill the executive seat so often?
The Bushes are not the first family to send multiple members to the White House. They join the Adamses (father John and son John Quincy), the Harrisons (grandfather William Henry and grandson Benjamin), and the Roosevelts (cousins Theodore and Franklin). But the Bushes are in a class by themselves for the speed with which one succeeded another—just eight years apart. And if the third Bush wins the top job after another interval of eight years, that will only make the exception more pronounced.
While we might fret about this for cultural reasons, we must acknowledge that it has not come about by accident. In fact, dynasties make a lot of sense for practical politicians. Acquiring the presidency is enormously challenging, and political dynasties ease at least some of the difficulties either in securing the nomination or in winning the general election. To put it bluntly, dynasties endure because they are politically useful.
Not surprisingly, then, political dynasties have actually been quite common in American history, though not always family-based. From the early 19th century into the 20th, there were three state-based political dynasties that were even more dominant than the Bushes.
The Virginia dynasty dominated the presidency for the first quarter of the nineteenth century. President Thomas Jefferson (1801-09) was succeeded by James Madison (1809-17), then James Monroe (1817-25). Strictly on merit, Jefferson’s and Madison’s elections were eminently sensible—but Monroe’s less so.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
From the expression on Billygoat’s face, it looks like he just got a radar-lock on some poor girl.
He’s thinking how to shortstop her before Hillary gets wind.
;)
What does it say on the can in his hand?
I can’t make it out.
Diet Pepsi
he looks like such a goober
I agree about 42 his major problem was his financial people were all from Goldman-sachs. all crooks all the time.
Problem is only one rino will run and hukabee and the conservatives will split the primary/crossover voters. game over hillary/michelle obama ticket wins.
unbelievable photo before or after wheel chair for wallace and bill’s got his eye on some big bootee. his peroni member is poken out the pants. these people are all a pile of shiite.
Mike’s looking pretty normal there...almost pulling off the “woman” look.
The neocon rag is starting the pre-invasion bombardment.
local diet pepsi/coke he and wallace hw has a mountain dew. Bill looks like he will put his peroni into the pie that day and bite her lip with put an ice on it kinda charm that he has.
tough to say if wallace is in a wheelchair or not in the photo
Head slap, eye roll, great sigh.
That those three “characters” are gathered together in the same image... is a WTF moment, if EVER there was one.
I’m beginning to think that the naysayers around here might be right in that we are BEYOND the tipping point.
Bush / Clinton 2016!
The assassination attempt on George Wallace was in 1972.
-
from wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace):
On May 15, 1972, he was shot five times
while campaigning at the Laurel Shopping Center in Laurel, Maryland
in the abdomen and chest, and one of the bullets lodged in Wallace’s spinal column,
leaving him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.
After the shooting, Wallace won primaries in Maryland and Michigan,
but his near assassination effectively ended his campaign. From his wheelchair,
Wallace spoke on July 11, 1972, at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida.
Jay Cost the brown-nosed reporter... come on, sing along!
Wallace is in a wheelchair. You can see the right armrest just inside and below his right elbow. The end of the left armrest is visible right next to the point of his left elbow.
Clinton and Bush’s chairs have no armrests.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.