Good For Him

I have always liked Jeb Bush and I would be willing to bet a dollar or two that he would have been the one Republican, above all others, the Obama White House did not want to get the GOP presidential nomination.  JB would beat Obama and I would have been willing to raise the stakes on that bet.  But now, even if Mitt Romney suddenly decided he would rather fly to the moon than run for president, Jeb Bush would not get the nomination.  He has committed the cardinal sin of speaking out loud about the current state of his party.  And he said it in front of a room full of reporters.  He went so far as to say that his dad and the GOP sainted Ronald Reagan would hardly fit in with today’s orthodoxy in the Grand Old Party.  He questioned the party on its stances on immigration, deficit reduction and partisanship and working towards compromise on major issues our country faces.   In other words, common sense.  None of this seems radical to me but to the no-compromise conservative activists running the party these days it is political poison.  JB was no sooner out the door of the Manhattan hotel where he gave the speech when Grover Norquist, the un-elected head of the party, starting taking pot shots at him.  Norquist basically said JB has not run for office in ten years and therefore is out of touch.  Ten years and already out of touch?  Wow, what took so long?

Mike Collins

June 14, 2012