Jeb

Scott Hardie | June 17, 2015
Now that he's officially in, thoughts on Jeb Bush's candidacy for president?

Samir Mehta | June 17, 2015
[hidden by request]

Mike Eberhart | June 17, 2015
For one thing, it doesn't matter who the Republicans put up. Hillary is going to win. That's just all there is to it. The same people that wanted Obama in as the first black president will want to vote her in as the first female president. So really, the Republicans don't have any chance at winning this election.

Aaron Shurtleff | June 17, 2015
I know this is a set up...

What makes Jeb not a viable candidate? I don't know that he will win (nomination or presidency), but to outright say he isn't a viable candidate??

More importantly, do people really think that because his last is Bush, it means his presidency must be like that of his father/brother? People think it's a handicap, but I think if people are judging Jeb by what his father or brother did, and not by what Jeb himself has done, then those people might be missing the point. I mean, do we expect Hillary to be Bill Clinton part 2??

I read somewhere that friends' greatest duty is to be someone you can show your true ignorance to, so that you can be corrected, and thus be better informed when you deal with strangers who would judge you ignorance more harshly. I fully admit my ignorance, especially on politics. Inform me, friends! :)

Samir Mehta | June 17, 2015
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | June 20, 2015
I love how the discussion about Hillary started with Steve saying that she has no chance, and this one started with Samir saying that Jeb has no chance. I think Hillary and Jeb are very likely to be the major party candidates, which means that one of them must win the White House. At least one of the three of us has to be wrong. (Mike could easily turn out to be correct above, but I'm sure he'd prefer to be wrong in this case.)

With a few tweaks to personalize it, Jeb can basically repeat Romney's primary strategy in 2016 and expect to win. He has way more money than the other Republican hopefuls (which really matters), he's respected if not loved by GOP voters, his positions are mostly mainstream and palatable to the general public, he has the backing of many party kingmakers (financial and otherwise), and so many of his rivals are prone to gaffes and self-destruction (though he has recently shown a propensity for it himself) that he can wait patiently while each rival has their fleeting moment in the spotlight before the inevitability of his much larger campaign overtakes them all. Jeb faces much more formidable opponents in Hillary and his own family's unpopularity than he does in the rest of the GOP.

Jeb is well known here in Florida of course, but if he's known for anything nationally besides simply being a governor, I'd guess it's his intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, which (unfortunately for him) remains quite polarizing. However, where Samir sees general lack of knowledge about Jeb to be a weakness, I see it as a strength: Jeb really doesn't have much to dislike besides lingering animosity toward his brother and perhaps fatigue of their family overall, neither of which is about him anyway, as Aaron said. I didn't support him at the time, but his governing was competent and fair outside of occasional missteps like Schiavo. His conservative credentials are more than solid, but he did break with orthodoxy where appropriate, as with protecting the Everglades. I think he's way more than viable: He's an overwhelming favorite to win the nomination at this early stage. The biggest question to me is how much damage his party rivals will do to him before the general election, something that the GOP doesn't want to see happen twice.