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Jeb Bush to CPAC: Yes, I support a path to legalization for illegal immigrants
Hot Air ^ | February 27, 2015 | Allahpundit

Posted on 02/27/2015 8:03:35 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Seeing some oohing and aahing online this afternoon among political media that Jeb didn’t pander to CPAC’s very conservative crowd on Common Core or immigration (“he stuck to his guns!”), but what would he have gained by doing that? Remember, for all the hype in 2012 that Romney was shifting to the center to run as a technocrat instead of as the culture warrior he ran as in 2008, he was still a fairly doctrinaire righty on most issues, the notable exception of RomneyCare aside. That’s what the “severely conservative” nonsense was all about in his CPAC speech three years ago. That’s also why he was a hard-ass about “self-deportation” as a solution to illegal immigration, a position that he alone seemed to hold among the amnesty-fan donor class from which he hails. (I’m convinced that self-deportation is to Romney 2012 what traditional marriage was to Obama 2008, although we’ll never know for sure.) Romney worried that, with the tea party in ascendance during Obama’s first term, he could win the GOP nomination but be crippled by recalcitrant conservatives who refused to vote for him in the general election. That’s why he insisted on pandering to them, I think — partly because he thought he could grab some righty votes here and there in the primaries as the most obviously electable candidate in the field and partly just to stay on conservatives’ good side so that they’d turn out for him.

Jeb’s coming from a different place. For one thing, there are formidable candidates in the field in Scott Walker and Marco Rubio who are arguably as electable as Bush is and with whom he’ll have to compete for dollars among the country-club set. He doesn’t (yet) have a stranglehold on the business class like Romney did. Bush’s “I won’t pander” shtick has also generated an early animosity among righties that wasn’t quite there for the eager-to-please Romney, who at least seemed like he wanted conservatives to like him. Bush’s aloofness is more Huntsman-esque. And the centrists of the donor class who are bankrolling him love it, of course. They’re sick to death of tea partiers whining about the establishment and they finally have a candidate who’s unapologetic about sharing their views. Furthermore, it was establishmentarians even more than tea partiers who thrived in the 2014 midterms. They have the momentum within the GOP right now, not righties, so why should they tolerate their champion pandering to right-wingers like they did with Mitt?

So here’s Jeb, knowing all of that and having already all but written off conservative votes, wondering what to do with his Q&A at CPAC today. Should he reverse course and start pandering to righties? If he did, we’d laugh at him while his centrist business-minded base would recoil in horror. Or should he stick to his guns, earning a little grudging respect from conservatives that he came onto their turf and refused to pander while impressing establishmentarians that he means what he says about running as a loud-and-proud centrist? It’s a no-brainer. In fact, for all the jokes today about this being Jeb’s moment to show he too is “severely conservative,” Bush was actually trying to do the opposite of what Romney was doing with that speech. Mitt gave that speech because he wanted to prove to CPAC’s audience of grassroots conservatives that he was one of them. Jeb gave today’s Q&A to prove to people who <>aren’t at CPAC that he’s one of them and not afraid to broadcast that fact at ground zero of the conservative movement. How that ends for him in November 2016 if he’s the nominee, I don’t know. Presumably he thinks it doesn’t matter how much righties dislike him since they’ll inevitably dislike Hillary more. He’s not wrong.

Here he is endorsing a path to legalization for illegals — a position held by every Republican candidate in the field, I hasten to remind you — followed by Laura Ingraham unloading on him in a speech at CPAC earlier this morning. Jeb also said today that he supports traditional marriage. Mark that down for easy reference for the inevitable “he’s evolved” news circa spring 2018. Exit quotation from Ingraham: “The idea that we should conduct any kind of coronation … because 50 rich families decide who will best decide their interests? No way, Jose.”

(VIDEOS-AT-LINK)


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016election; amnesty; bush; cpac; election2016; florida; illegals; immigration; jebbush
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I support a pathway to Mexico for Jebster Bush.


21 posted on 02/27/2015 8:29:20 PM PST by chris37 (heartless)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Yeah, Jeb. That is one of the reasons 500 TEA partiers walked out on your speech. (Not 5 like he claims.)
22 posted on 02/27/2015 8:36:16 PM PST by stilloftyhenight (‘the Medieval Christian threat is under control’)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I held my nose and voted for Romney and for McCain. They both lost.

I’ll not do it again.

Cruz, Walker, or I sit this one out. It’s as simple as that.


23 posted on 02/27/2015 8:37:12 PM PST by OkiMusashi (Beware the fury of a patient man. --- John Dryden)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Is America ready for for a president that looks like a flabby old lesbian?

Seriously, Amnesty aside, Mexican lobbyist J. Bush looked awful at CPAC. He has no jawline, no apparent muscles in his entire body.

24 posted on 02/27/2015 8:38:14 PM PST by Dagnabitt (Islamic Immigration is Treason.)
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To: entropy12

Bye fat boy. Adios amigo!!


25 posted on 02/27/2015 8:40:16 PM PST by iowacornman (Peter King Sucks)
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To: Dagnabitt

Look at this fool, I mean just look at him. What a friggin' embarrassment he is.

26 posted on 02/27/2015 8:42:32 PM PST by chris37 (heartless)
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To: OkiMusashi

I want Cruz or Walker too but if you sit this one out like the ones who sat out the last two elections then we will get Hillary.


27 posted on 02/27/2015 8:44:02 PM PST by Ditter
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To: fieldmarshaldj; Tennessee Nana; 2ndDivisionVet; Liz; stephenjohnbanker; Impy; NFHale; ...
RE:”Jeb said : Secure our borders”
......
Utter horseshit. His brother refused to do so, and El Jebbe is well to the left of George on open borders”

Better yet, I think he said :
“Secure our borders first”

28 posted on 02/27/2015 8:49:12 PM PST by sickoflibs (King Obama : 'The debate is over. The time for talk is over. Just follow my commands you serfs""')
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To: OkiMusashi

It was easy to not vote for Romney, McCain I voted for because of Palin.

The nerve of this POS Jeb Bush to even run!

His one term father couldn’t parlay WINNING THE COLD WAR into beating Clinton and his two term brother REFUSED TO COUNTER ATTACK DOMESTIC MARXISTS for 8 years and created DHS and TSA.

He is obviously out of his goddamned mind, thinks he’s royalty, and is so demented that he believes he can be nominated pushing amnesty for illegal aliens.

Going to spend a billion dollars too, have to believe that the consultants and lobbyists are encouraging this FOOL because they need the payday.

He’s a freakin psycho.


29 posted on 02/27/2015 8:51:41 PM PST by Rome2000 (SMASH THE CPUSA)
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To: Dagnabitt
J. Bush looked awful at CPAC. He has no jawline, no apparent muscles in his entire body.

He always looks to me like he slid out of a jello mold.

30 posted on 02/27/2015 8:52:12 PM PST by TexasKamaAina
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To: Tennessee Nana

I believe he brought his own peanut galley in for his Q&A with Hannity. It was ridiculous.


31 posted on 02/27/2015 8:54:36 PM PST by billys kid (My beloved is mine and I am thine...)
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To: sickoflibs
Give them a path to citizenship for good behavior(whats good?)

When your very first act in stepping over the border is to commit a felony, there goes THAT idea.

32 posted on 02/27/2015 8:55:18 PM PST by Colonel_Flagg (You're either in or in the way.)
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To: Rome2000

TX will vote for Jebbie; it has already voted 70 percent plus for George P. in 2014.


33 posted on 02/27/2015 8:55:20 PM PST by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: sickoflibs; Tennessee Nana; 2ndDivisionVet; Liz; stephenjohnbanker; Impy; NFHale; GOPsterinMA; ...
Audience kind of cheered, it wasn't overwhelming.

And yet, he packed the gallery with his own ringers:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3262511/posts

Which explains how he got so much love from a "conservative" gathering.

34 posted on 02/27/2015 8:55:30 PM PST by FredZarguna (Valar morghulis)
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To: Ditter

Agree wholeheartedly. Obama needed ousting at the last election. Staying home has brought on another 4 years of vicious EOs, loss of even more rights and now net “neutrality,” the only true method of free speech left to the citizenry.

Staying home is not an option. I sometimes wonder whose side they’re on. This method is a well known psyops to get those against us elected.


35 posted on 02/27/2015 8:56:53 PM PST by stilloftyhenight (‘the Medieval Christian threat is under control’)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Read my lips...NO MORE BUSHES.


36 posted on 02/27/2015 8:57:00 PM PST by mom of young patriots
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You go Jeb- to the National Socialist Democratic Party.


37 posted on 02/27/2015 8:58:45 PM PST by matthew fuller (They donÂ’t call the GOP the stupid party without reason.)
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To: chris37

Is that his victory walk? He walks like Obama the wuss.


38 posted on 02/27/2015 8:59:11 PM PST by stilloftyhenight (‘the Medieval Christian threat is under control’)
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To: stilloftyhenight

I do not know what to call that other than the hey look at me, I’m a complete douchebag shuffle.


39 posted on 02/27/2015 9:01:54 PM PST by chris37 (heartless)
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To: Colonel_Flagg
RE:”When your very first act in stepping over the border is to commit a felony, there goes THAT idea. “

Not true.

One of he last acts of the GOP house in 2006 was to put up a bill making it a felony and the Dems made such a stink about it that it failed to pass even that house.

40 posted on 02/27/2015 9:04:44 PM PST by sickoflibs (King Obama : 'The debate is over. The time for talk is over. Just follow my commands you serfs""')
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