General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJeb Bush: "I used to be a conservative..."
"I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I'm wondering, I don't think I've changed, but it's a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people's fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that's kind of where we are."
-- Jeb Bush, quoted by Fox News, on the rhetoric of the Republican presidential candidates
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/02/23/jeb-bush-2012-gop-field-appealing-peoples-fears
The Velveteen Ocelot
(121,673 posts)I guess he just disqualified himself for 2016 - the mouth-breathers that control the GOP won't touch him after a comment like that.
GoCubsGo
(33,220 posts)...if it comes to that. Got to wonder if he'll be invited back on Fox after that.
Johonny
(22,305 posts)so he can line himself up. He said it on FOX news and FOX news will have his back. This is about burying them so he can run as a "new kind of conservative". Even though I see no difference between Jeb Bush and the losers already running. Jeb ran Florida into the ground with his totally ideological driven time as governor.
sendero
(28,552 posts).... Jeb is not the idiot his brother is. He knows that the radical right can never win a national election and he is positioning himself as an alternative.
aquart
(69,014 posts)At least the Dems aren't the only party hoping for a messiah.
sellitman
(11,689 posts)You know the party is so very screwed.
didact
(246 posts)eom
cyberpj
(10,794 posts)You betcha.
Raksha
(7,167 posts)Jeb is positioning himself as the "moderate" Republican.
Democrat18
(28 posts)And 100% correct!
cyberpj
(10,794 posts)Feb 7th here.
Hit a rather big milestone myself this year.
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts).
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)You're a Bewsh, Jeb. There's only one Bewsh worth a shit, and her name's Dorothy.
The rest of you country-ruining pigs can ROT.
Auggie
(31,943 posts)WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)Give me a break, Jeb!!
bornskeptic
(1,330 posts)He wants to be nominated in 2016, when he won't have to run against an incumbent. Getting nominated this year would just mean a loss which would ruin his future chances. But don't be surprised if he winds up as the vice-presidential nominee.
stockholmer
(3,751 posts)at the top. One of those four is somewhere on the ticket, depending on events and Rmoney's failure to lock up a first ballot nomination.
If this huge spike in oil prices trashes the recovery eventually, or there is war with Iran that is going badly (ie false-flag or real terrorism on US soil, massive attacks on US navy, etc), the election will be much closer than many think.
If none of the above happens, and either Santorum or Newt is anywhere on the Rethug ticket, Obama will win 38 to 44 states.
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)Either for Prez or VP.
It'll be the Republican 'recovery' from the years of Obama and their misogyny.
DonCoquixote
(13,744 posts)Please do tell me there was a sarcasm flag missing. Women know that a candidate that happens to be female is still a sexist if she shreds abortion rights and programs for schools and healthcare.
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)and there was a reason I put 'recovery' in quotes.
They'll field a woman for appearances and also to try and secure the next 'first' for a President.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)if the rethugs can trash the economy in time for the convention, or at least feel certain it can be trashed by election day, he'll be the brokered, supposedly sane, supposedly centrist, nominee.
If they decide they cannot trash the economy in time, they'll let McCrazy Flavor-of-the-Month lose in 2012 and line Jebby up for 2016.
libtodeath
(2,892 posts)what anyone from that family of criminals and monsters thinks.
Bet jeb thinks he is going to jump in at the last moment and save the day for the shellacking the repukes are going to take in November.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)saras
(6,670 posts)We seem to forget regularly that conservative think tanks work on twenty-year timelines.
cyberpj
(10,794 posts)Dems always look like keystone cops, running around to put out the fires so thoughtfully and strategically set by the true Republican Party Kings.
DallasNE
(7,600 posts)In this sound bite and that message took Huntsman into purgatory and that is what is so surprising coming from a Bush.
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)I was wondering when the word "conservative" would finally become as demonized as "liberal".
It took far too long.
guitar man
(15,996 posts)They did it to themselves. After spending untold billions on propaganda to demonize the word liberal, they have turned around and shot themselves in the foot.
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)Our side may spit when we say it, "conservative" (spit!), but we are generally too honest to disavow the actual meaning of what is a positive word.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)George, he made a presidency all about "appealing to people's fears".
Yooperman
(592 posts)The GOP has always been that way at least since reagan...
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)That's what I want to know.
Is Katherine Harris still using your phone to get election results?
Have you forgotten about the Brooks Brothers riot yet?
I haven't.
Are you sure you want to go on tv?
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)AndyTiedye
(23,533 posts)He was right, Reagan did indeed practice voodoo economics, but nothing compared to what Bush II ushered in.
Crunchy Frog
(27,148 posts)HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)Along the lines of "Fool me once, shame on you..........Ya see? Ya don't get fooled again."
calimary
(84,730 posts)So it's always suspect and totally calculated. ALWAYS. And jebbie is considered the smartest and shrewdest of the bunch. From what I've read, it was jeb who carried the hopes of his family for that latter-day political dynasty that would rival the Kennedys. They thought he would be the one, not doofus dry-drunk dubya. But he lost an election for Florida governor at the same time georgie won his in Texas, so the family calculus changed. Much to all of our horror and sorrow!
I would trust jeb about as far as I could throw my house.
vanlassie
(5,901 posts)A teeny tiny hat, but....that's the way Bushes do things....underhandedly, quietly, when you're barely paying attention.
BadgerKid
(4,706 posts)Lucy
(243 posts)Beware, the bushes.
tpsbmam
(3,927 posts)and he gets to appear to be the sane one. Sad, isn't it, when a Bush looks like the sane one?
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)ruin the country. Once shame on you, twice shame of me and the third time your asking to commit suicide and we sure don't want to do that.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)It has to hurt watching the party go from um dumb and dumber, to batshitinsane.
warrior1
(12,325 posts)but, they might end up calling him Rmoney lite.
lark
(24,377 posts)Romney goverened moderate but talks all consverative now to try to win. Jeb is much much smarter and way more dangerous. He talks moderate and wins by appealing to independents & hispanics, but once he's in office, he's totally ruthlessly right wing. I've lived in FL most of my life, and believe you me, he's way way more of a threat than Romney. Romney would have a hard time beating Obama, Jeb, not nearly as muh.
BlueToTheBone
(3,747 posts)Is he trying to position himself as the great white hope?
I can't even bear the thought of it.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)By Jack Colhoun
EXCERPT...
Jeb: Liaison to Anti-Castro Right
George Herbert Walker Bush's second eldest son, John Ellis or Jeb, was also linked to clandestine schemes in support of the Contras. Soon after congressional prohibition in late 1984, Jeb helped put a right-wing Guatemalan politician, Dr. Mario Castejon, in touch with Oliver North. Jeb acted as the Reagan administration's unofficial link with the Contras and Nicaraguan exiles in Miami.
Jeb was contacted in February 1985 by a friend of Castejon, who gave him a letter from Castejon to be passed on to then Vice President Bush. In his letter Castejon, a pediatrician and later an unsuccessful National Conservative Party presidential candidate, requested a meeting with George Bush to discuss a proposed medical aid project for the Contras. Jeb forwarded the letter to his father. In a March 3, 1985, letter, Vice President Bush expressed interest in Castejon's proposal to create an international medical brigade.
SNIP...
Jeb had another Contra connection in his involvement with Miguel Recarey, Jr., a right-wing Cuban who headed the International Medical Centers (IMC) in Miami. In 1985 and 1986, Recarey and his associates gave more than $25,000 in contributions to political action committees controlled by then Vice President Bush. In 1986, Recarey hired Jeb, a real estate developer, to find a new headquarters for IMC. Jeb was paid a $75,000 fee, even though he never located a new building.
In September 1984, two months after IMC's $2,000 contribution to the Dade County Republican Party, which was headed by Jeb, the vice president's son contacted several top HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) officials on behalf of IMC. "Contrary to rumors, [Recarey] was a good community citizen and a good supporter of the Republican Party," one official of the HHC remembered Jeb telling him in late 1984. Jeb successfully sought an HHS waiver of a rule so that IMC could receive more than 50 percent of its income from Medicare.30
CONTINUED...
http://mediafilter.org/caq/bushfamilypreys.html
cyberpj
(10,794 posts)muntrv
(14,505 posts)sufrommich
(22,871 posts)walk back their extremist messege that has become more and more pronounced during the primary. Now that they've spread their poison, they'll attempt to wash their hands of it.
Richardo
(38,391 posts)It's a hat in the ring.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,883 posts)You can't convince me that he's ready to throw in his lot with us pro-abortion, homosexual enabling, atheist liberals. He's bound to have something up his sleeve.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)a few years ago. They used to be proud to be called conservative or right wing, but now they like the label "moderate" because that plays better with independent voters. So they try to move the RW SO far right that their right wing, corporatist views are considered "moderate".
I first noticed it when one of the more RW posters I argued with on another board took to calling himself a "moderate". He was anything BUT moderate, but he was trying to place his views in the middle of the spectrum of beliefs of Americans rather than on the periphery. It's a long term strategy to shape attitudes of the lower informational voters. The ones who only pay attention every four years.
spanone
(137,705 posts)warrior1
(12,325 posts)don't want another bush in the WH.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Iggo
(48,606 posts)TlalocW
(15,632 posts)You can bet that they're keeping their eyes open and positioning themselves just for the minute possibility that he could come steal it in 2012 from the not-Fab Four.
TlalocW
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)One Bush in the White House was bad enough.
And there is no way in hell the American people are going to forget about Junior.
Not in their lifetimes.
Jeb may as well go play golf until he is an old, old man because his day in the sun came and went a long time ago.
FSogol
(46,784 posts)Danger!, Danger!
lastlib
(25,002 posts)"I wasn't always a conservative--I used to be a Nazi."
taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)looks like he'll be testing waters soon.
GusFring
(756 posts)This is how the Bush Mafia continues to gain power in this nation. Obama wants to punish people by making them pay the same tax rate they paid under Bill CLinton? Really?
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Omigod, ORANGE ALERT!! Where's the duck tape? Where's the duck tape???
fishwax
(29,328 posts)boxman15
(1,033 posts)I'd rather go through another Bush term than a Santorum term or a Gingrich half-day.
SwissTony
(2,560 posts)The Bushes look moderate?????
This is scary.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)They darn well know Duhbya had destroyed the Republican brand, and they needed to clean up their image if Jeb wants to run for - and win - the presidency in 2016.
It appears we're being groomed for another Bush in 2016, and I'm surprised a lot of people are falling for it.
Make no mistake. Jeb is a CONservative just like the loons in their party. Romney, Santorum, Paul, Bachmann, Cain - they were all paraded in front of us to give us crazy so sane Jebbie can ride in and save the Republican Party with Independents and maybe even a few conservative Democrats.
It had always bothered me that the cadre of Republican clowns were so out there, so insane, and that no one seemed to see it. They darn well know there's no winning from President Obama and it would make no sense to do it since the economy is still weak, so they'll do kabuki theater for their loyal supporters while giving the appearance they're serious about winning this time around, just enough to be relevant.
The economy is not yet there. They need to give President Obama a second term so he can finish bringing back a stronger economy, and then just like Duhbya, they'll come in and pretend it's Christmas all over again.
wandy
(3,539 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)Newt, Romney and Sicktorum are deliberately slinging ridiculous mud balls all over just so Jebby can walk in and seem like a reasonable person next to them. It's a set up, I knew it was!
LiberalLovinLug
(14,386 posts)I always thought it was a set up for 2016, but egads....it could even be a setup for 2012!
The Last Democrat
(73 posts)for a long time its a set up for Jeb, there doing all the dirty work and then hell step in the last minute like mr. clean ..and all will before gotten .they hope.
Hugabear
(10,340 posts)Especially Newt.
If there's one thing that most high-profile rethugs have in common, it's a super-sized ego
Whisp
(24,096 posts)they are oath takers to the core. the one thing they are good at is Follow the Leader - they stick together like shit to a blanket.
cyberpj
(10,794 posts)and then set up all the stones on the path to get there.
The ones at the top are a LOT smarter than most here credit them.
chrisa
(4,524 posts)But then I took an arrow to the knee.
pretty much sums it up.
SnowCritter
(857 posts)Whatever your particular problem is the Republican candidates have no interest in solving it. The Republican candidates are concerned with two things, and two things only - making you afraid of it and telling you who to blame for it.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Stardust
(3,894 posts)mysterious ways, but a bit frustrating for those of us who want some red meat once in a while.
Has anyone in this thread explained exactly *what* Jeb is now, if not a Conservative?
- a Neo-Con? He was a PNAC signer after all.
- a Tea Partier?
- (phoney-baloney) "Moderate?"
- a hapless, privileged dumbass?
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)It may be true, or not, we have no idea at all.
I think the question of what that meeting was about is an important one, and I would love to know more, it sent chills up my spine frankly.
KG
(28,769 posts)like every other member of the BFEE, totally incapable of telling the truth
totodeinhere
(13,385 posts)I don't trust a word that comes out of Jeb's mouth. Obviously he is trying to appear to be more moderate for political reasons. His brother tried the same trick in 2000. If the convention deadlocks then he can arrive on the scene as their knight in shining armor. I hope that people don't fall for it.
Monk06
(7,675 posts)not enjoying ride. When you encourage hate to energize your illiterate base, don't be surprised when they turn on you.
AndyTiedye
(23,533 posts)if (strstr(candidate.name,"Bush')) candidate.votes += 5000000;
JNathanK
(185 posts)...and don't realize that much of Obama's spending is to pay for credit spent in Bush's terms. Never underestimate how stupid people are. Daddy Bush put us into a recession in the early 90's, but voters re-elected his son, because they had nostalgia for Bush Sr. after the horrible atrocities that Clinton committed against his secretaries vagina.
Thrill
(19,312 posts)"The return of Real Conservatism"
"Bringing back the Party of Reagan"
Sounds like good strategy to me. He won't be running against President Obama. And he'll have just enough photo ops with Obama to fool the Reagan Democrats into thinking he can work with the other side.
jsmirman
(4,507 posts)asshole.
Florida has a cruel history of exclusion from the political process and rule by suppression that has been practiced ruthlessly by the ruling oligarchs in that state. He is one of them.
This is all about trying to find someone new who can completely whitewash the Republican role in getting us neck deep in the fucking mess that his idiot cousin and those who ran him created.
This country should be ready for another Bush in office in about... well, never.
golfguru
(4,987 posts)He no longer is a conservative? Hey Jebbie, ever think of changing parties?
iris27
(1,951 posts)Renew Deal
(83,166 posts)I've noticed the same thing about fears, etc.
retread
(3,829 posts)thelordofhell
(4,569 posts)Then the Bush family will just assassinate the President.........It almost worked with ronald reagan, but now they have perfected it.
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)Yeah, like your brother and your father, not to mention your queen bitch of a mother.
EmeraldCityGrl
(4,310 posts)emergence of a "moderate" Jeb has the stench of Rove all over it.
JNathanK
(185 posts)Lol, I had MSNBC on, and right when I read this, they started doing a story on it.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)My friend in Washington says the oppo research has been done on Jeb. There are two bimbo eruptions waiting to be revealed should he step forward.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Jeb is positioning himself for that. Losing 40-45 states and congress will cause the party to stamp out the t-baggers. "Get in Line"
Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)Appealing to people's fears is Jebbie's PROFESSION as a Republican front man.
And he wouldn't know a "horizon" if someone pointed it out to him.
Response to kpete (Original post)
Post removed
Crunchy Frog
(27,148 posts)If we have yet another Bush presidency, I'll take cyanide.
pacalo
(24,738 posts)Unbelievable. Like his brother's 8 years was a figment of our nightmares.
That's all they've ever done. The only think new about this is that a repuke is actually admitting it.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and that says a lot Jeb.
(Perhaps he sees the splintering, err writing on the wall)
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)Seems kinda weird and hypocritical that your lamenting the current crop of GOP crazies "appealing to people's fears and emotion" when your family has made a career of using this tactic to gain political influence (including two presidents).
Kinda funny and sureal in a sick way, but what else would one expect from the BFEE.
Don't worry....we know what your up to...don't even think it
(P.S. I wish the bushies would just go away)
DallasNE
(7,600 posts)What do you think the freaking Willie Horton ad was all about? Fear has been the common thread of conservative Republican politics dating back to Goldwater then Nixon's Southern strategy. Fear is the Republican brand. It is what Sarah Palin did in 2010 when she plastered gun sight targets on Democratic districts, including Gabby Giffords district in Arizona. So the question is: where have you been for all of these years Jeb?
DCBob
(24,689 posts)I sincerely hope he does not somehow end up being the GOP nominee.
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)Never again.
No one cares what you think Jeb.
That's your legacy!
mmonk
(52,589 posts)as they are nuts, Jeb.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,613 posts)Conservative or not, there was nothing good about that man as governor.
olegramps
(8,200 posts)The members of the PNAC called for the invasion of Iraq and dominated the Bush-Cheney administration that is responsible for one of the most disastrous mistakes in our nation's history. If he attempts a run for a national office, I can only hope that he and his henchmen are held responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women and child as they gleefully celebrated the Shock and Awe blitzkrieg of Baghdad.
I am concerned that he is the shadow candidate that will emerge as either the presidential candidate of the vice-presidential running mate. Therefore it is imperative that the Democrats expose him as one of those most responsible for this disaster and that his election could only result in a resurgence of their policy to dominate the Middle East. We can't rely on the major media sources to expose him since they totally failed the citizens when they fully supported the out right lies they gladly published in the run up to the Iraq war.
newspeak
(4,847 posts)was heavily invested in enron?
With little boot's bogus war that put billions of our money in corporations like halliburton, KBR, blackwater, and little boot's allowing his friends to regulate themselves; he screwed this country royally. However, I may get flamed, but we do have some really stupid people in this country, or ones with short term memories. Because where I live, I've seen some bumper stickers with "miss me now? GW bush."
Maybe there are some in this country who'd love to set up a monarchy and just declare the BFEE as royalty. And if they bring down the country where there are serfs and the royalty left, the clueless would still be cheering for the masters to whip them some more.
and what's truly disturbing, is that everyone of the repug candidates want to deregulate, basically screw us some more-get rid of anything and everything that protects the populace from the vampires. Think enron screwing not just california, but everyone nationwide.
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,752 posts)Botany
(72,737 posts)After you and your buddies stopped the counting of votes in Florida 2000 you
put that unelected shit for brains in as President where he said, Iraq, Iran, and
North Korea are an Axis of Evil." Which to me at least sounds like appealing to
people's fears.
and BTW one of the largest pro American show of sympathy rallies in the world
was in Tehran, Iran after 9/11. Iran reached out to the U.S. after 9/11 and told
us they wanted to talk and we could fly over their country in pursuit of al Qaeda
but W refused to even talk to them. N. Korea wanted to talk too but W didn't so
now they have the bomb. And w/ Iraq we all know the story there.
lumpy
(13,704 posts)more moderate than the current crop of zealots.
jmowreader
(51,659 posts)The four clowns currently seeking the nomination are full-on Fascists. There is a difference, although today there's not much of one.
Skittles
(160,529 posts)repukes have been appealing to people's fears AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER
ProfessorGAC
(70,848 posts). . .remember the Dems did it to Goldwater. Not that i liked the guy, but the mushroom cloud ad wasn't a republican ad.
This is just typical american politics.
Skittles
(160,529 posts)if you're trying to say Democrats are as bad as repukes I'm calling BS
ProfessorGAC
(70,848 posts)If you wish to infer things i didn't imply, ok.
All i was saying is that preying on fear has been part and parcel of U.S. politics for 60 years.
GAC
Initech
(102,655 posts)"Oh I'll believe that when me shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbert."
Creideiki
(2,567 posts)Congressional seats.
Isn't that the modus operandi of the DLC (and DNC) lately? Round up disaffected Republicans and get them to run against actual Democrats?
DonCoquixote
(13,744 posts)That's why they want Charlie Crist as Governor. Of course, seeing as how so many so called democrats were willing to hang meek out to allow Rubio in, I realize I will have a choice between a man I hate (Crist) and a man who hate is too weak a word for (Rick Scott.)
dodger501
(1,069 posts)No, making millionaires pay as much as secretaries, janitors, etc., is not punishing success.
Rewarding work at least as much as rewarding wealth is not punishing success.
Taxing people making a pile of money off of Wall Street speculating, people who create nothing, is not punishing success.
And giving poor people tools to succeed is rhetorical bullshit.
Response to kpete (Original post)
Post removed
paparush
(7,989 posts)MUSHROOM CLOUD
MUSHROOM CLOUD
ALUMINUM MISSILE TUBES
YELLOW CAKE URANIUM FROM NIGER
MOBILE CHEM WEAPONS LABS
MUSHROOM CLOUD
MUSHROOM CLOUD
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Nope, a bu$h would never would play on people's fears