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)
Wow, he must think the CPAC attendees are even stupider and more gullible than Willard did.
Then work your butt off to get those 2 nominated. The GOPe will pour in money and support Jeb or the RINO of their choice. You can counter that with shoe leather, and volunteering. Sign up as your precinct representative with your local republican party. I did a lot of that when I was younger and had the energy. Make phone calls. And donate to candidates of your choice.
After you do all that and the RINO wins nomionation, you have may have earned the right to sit it out. Otherwise you are just helping Hillary get elected.
In a general election, of course, Texas would vote for Jeb.
But, in the Republican primary, he would finish no better than third -- behind Cruz, Perry and any other perceived conservative.
If repeated after deportation, it’s a felony.
What, if anything, will Jeb do for legal American citizens?
LOL! Nice sermon, Reverend. But, I’ve been around a while and it’s becoming obvious to me that “The Problem” isn’t on my end. If the GOPE puts another RINO (like Romney or McCain) on the top of the ticket, then they should expect the same results.
Somebody needs to tell ‘em and I just thought I’d give it a shot.
Besides, I live waaay out in the country. Yeah, I guess I could put a big billboard sigh up in my yard, but the the only dudes that would ever see it are the mailman and the trash truck dude. :)
No, we gotta get someone like Cruz or Walker to the forefront and do it now. In 2016, if the best thing the Republican candidate can say is that he’s not Hillary, it is gonna work out the same way it did for McCain and Romney relying on the fact that they are not Obama. We need a genuine small gov’t conservative who is not from a political dynasty and we need it yesterday.
Where’s the money in that?
I live in Oklahoma, anyway. Hillary “may” win one or two counties .... maybe.
Obama never did.
ANY Republican will win Oklahoma.... with or without me.
Call us bigots.
Will America have to choose between two flabby old lesbians from the same family -- either Jeb or Hillary (consort of the brother from another mother)?
He can’t even control his family.. his wife is a jewelry hound that loves to spend in the thousands and hides it from him. If she can dupe him, any despot in the world can do the same.
I support them getting on the path they came here on and taking their asses back home. And to all of the politicians, both ‘RATS and RINOs, who are now spewing the garbage about how superior the illegal aliens are to Americans, KISS MY ASS!!!
“Jeb Bush to CPAC: Yes, I support a path to legalization for illegal immigrants
_______________________________________
Yes and he got applause for saying that...
I thought this group were suppose to be Conservative ???”
Confirmed: Jeb Bush did bus in supporters to CPAC
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3262511/posts
It’s called ASTROTURF!
Well my grandma got here legally i think but my grandad had to have a lawyer fake his lack of papers by claiming he walked across the bridge in canada looking for work. he was building tanks at the fords plant here in chester, the FBI showed up. what to do. it’s a funny story because my dad was several years old when the papers show my grandfather was crossing the bridge.
Do you really believe that a RINO President would be any better than Hillary? Seriously?
You are wrong. Oh, so wrong.
I know I will lose my job to an illegal invader.
Cruz will turn out millions of conservative American voters who identify with the hispanic culture and they will vote for him.
Fact ! an it scares hell outta them
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