Author Topic: Jeb Bush is purposely poking the Republican base in the eye. Why? By Chris Cillizza  (Read 1290 times)

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Offline mystery-ak

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/07/jeb-bush-is-purposely-poking-the-republican-base-in-the-eye-why//?print=1

Jeb Bush is purposely poking the Republican base in the eye. Why?
By Chris Cillizza Updated: April 7 at 1:38 pm

Jeb Bush's "act of love" comments about immigration over the weekend drew massive headlines with some conservatives criticizing him for his latest apostasy on the issue.

But, it's the lead-up to Bush using the phrase "act of love" that's actually the really important part of what he said.  Here it is with our bolding added:

    There are means by which we can control our border better than we have. And there should be penalties for breaking the law. But the way I look at this -- and I'm going to say this, and it'll be on tape and so be it. The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn’t come legally, they come to our country because their families -- the dad who loved their children -- was worried that their children didn’t have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love. It’s an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime that there should be a price paid, but it shouldn’t rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families.

Jeb Bush knew exactly what he was doing.  He knew that calling for a different standards for immigration depending on why the person entered the country would make conservatives' blood boil. (He basically said as much.) This was no slip of the tongue or off-message riff from a politician who has been out of the game for a while.  This was calculated.

And, it's not the first time recently that Bush has purposely poked the GOP base in the eye on an issue near and dear to them.  He has been outspoken in support for Common Core, a series of education standards, that many conservatives loathe. Here's Bush on Common Core last month:

    Let me tell you something. In Asia today, they don’t care about children’s self esteem. They care about math, whether they can read – in English – whether they understand why science is important, whether they have the grit and determination to be successful.  You tell me which society is going to be the winner in this 21st Century: The one that worries about how they feel, or the one that worries about making sure the next generation has the capacity to eat everybody’s lunch?

Why is Bush going at his party's base on two such hot-button issues?  We have three theories.

1. He believes it.  This is the line that Bush loyalists are shopping. Jeb isn't like other politicians. He doesn't play the D.C. game. He says what he thinks and doesn't care about the consequences.

2. He's throwing up trial balloons. Every time he talks about running for president -- he did it again over the weekend -- Jeb makes clear that he would want to do so "joyfully" and not get into a mudfight.  While we tend to think that's impossible given the modern process of running for president, it's possible that what Jeb is doing with his statements on immigration and Common Core is seeing just how negatively those sorts of proposals are received and how much blowback he gets on them from the right.  If it's less than he expected, maybe he convinces himself he could run without having to get down and dirty with his rivals for the nomination.

3. He's inoculating himself. Maybe Jeb has already decided he wants to run -- or he's strongly leaning that way.  If he has, then making clear his support for Common Core and a more lenient national immigration policy now might well be a way to insulate himself from charges later on in the process that he is insufficiently conservative.  You can imagine Bush in a primary debate sometime in late 2015 saying something like this: "My position is long held.  Now, not everyone will agree with me but my thoughts on the issue are born of conviction not political positioning."  While that answer won't convince hard core immigration opponents, it does have the potential to defuse the passion around the issue for others.

Jeb Bush is the prime mover in the GOP race. He acts and other candidates -- with the possible exceptions of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul -- react.  So, watch what he says -- and doesn't. Always.
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Offline aligncare

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There's something disquieting about Jeb Bush. I'm not sure he believes in the same kind of federal government that I believe in – one that is smaller and limited to foreign policy and defense and to enumerated powers. He talks like a big-government Republican.

Offline Right_in_Virginia

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There's something disquieting about Jeb Bush. I'm not sure he believes in the same kind of federal government that I believe in – one that is smaller and limited to foreign policy and defense and to enumerated powers. He talks like a big-government Republican.

I'm not sure he's on the side of the American citizen. 

Offline collins

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I think he did for all three reasons stated, and I think his comment was just stupid, considering that Mexico has an unemployment rate much lower than ours'.

Offline MBB1984

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Looking like Jeb is seriously thinking about running.   The left wing of the GOP desperately needs a candidate since Christie disintegrated. 

I will never vote for Bush III, neither in the primary nor the general.  If he wins the GOP nomination, I am third party all the way.

Offline Fishrrman

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aligncare wrote above:
[[ He talks like a big-government Republican. ]]

I'll guess that's because he -is- .

He'll talk the talk, and he'll walk the walk, if given the chance.

Offline Chieftain

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« Last Edit: April 10, 2014, 01:16:07 am by Chieftain »

Offline Atomic Cow

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Running Jeb Bush as the GOP's candidate in 2016 is not a wise idea, not at all.  The name alone is simply too polarizing, even without the dynasty issues that would be floated.

The establishment wants either their guy to win, or the Democrat to win.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline Chieftain

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I still think Jeb is positioning himself for a position in a Hildebeest Administration, Secretary of Defense for example.....her token Republican ala Chuckie Hagel.

« Last Edit: April 10, 2014, 01:20:35 am by Chieftain »

Offline 240B

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The establishment wants either their guy to win, or the Democrat to win.

I agree. 100%. If it came down to voting Tea Party or voting Democrat, the establishment, so called, 'Republicans' will vote Dem every time. I am still not totally convinced that McCain voted for himself. He campaigned so hard for Obama, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he voted for him.
 
They worship the status quo and the power and the money. That is what they are dedicated to preserving. And they have absolute disdain for average ordinary working Americans, especially anyone who challenges them.
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline sinkspur

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I agree. 100%. If it came down to voting Tea Party or voting Democrat, the establishment, so called, 'Republicans' will vote Dem every time. I am still not totally convinced that McCain voted for himself. He campaigned so hard for Obama, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he voted for him.
 
They worship the status quo and the power and the money. That is what they are dedicated to preserving. And they have absolute disdain for average ordinary working Americans, especially anyone who challenges them.

LOL!!  It was the gutless, Mormon-hating "conservatives" that stayed home in 2012 and denied Romney the presidency.

What evidence do you have that "establishment" Republicans vote for Democrats?
Roy Moore's "spiritual warfare" is driving past a junior high without stopping.

Offline 240B

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LOL!!  It was the gutless, Mormon-hating "conservatives" that stayed home in 2012 and denied Romney the presidency.

What evidence do you have that "establishment" Republicans vote for Democrats?

I agree with you. I do think the Mormon thing was a factor. Stupid RNC that nominated him.
 
As for the GOP voting Democrat, I only have one question. Does anyone believe that idiots like McConnell would ever vote for a Tea Party candidate? He and those like him absolutely hate the Tea Party, because it represents a threat to their grip on power.
 
BTW, I offer myself as an example. If it comes down to voting for some 70+ year old Republican who has been in Congress since bread was invented, I myself am the example. I will vote Democrat if it comes to that. If I had to vote for John McCain, or some unknown illegal, who is a Democrat calling himself Manuel, I would vote Manuel with vigor.
 
These guys have to go. At any cost.
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline truth_seeker

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Anybody voting for a democrat these days is a fool.
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline 240B

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Anybody voting for a democrat these days is a fool.

The reverse is equally true.
 
We are so screwed.
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline sinkspur

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I agree with you. I do think the Mormon thing was a factor. Stupid RNC that nominated him.
 
As for the GOP voting Democrat, I only have one question. Does anyone believe that idiots like McConnell would ever vote for a Tea Party candidate? He and those like him absolutely hate the Tea Party, because it represents a threat to their grip on power.
 
BTW, I offer myself as an example. If it comes down to voting for some 70+ year old Republican who has been in Congress since bread was invented, I myself am the example. I will vote Democrat if it comes to that. If I had to vote for John McCain, or some unknown illegal, who is a Democrat calling himself Manuel, I would vote Manuel with vigor.
 
These guys have to go. At any cost.

So you despise Republicans more than Democrats.

And you admit that it was just dandy to vote against a Mormon.

There's a word for "conservatives" like you.
Roy Moore's "spiritual warfare" is driving past a junior high without stopping.

Offline 240B

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Are you insane? I have nothing against Mormons. My sister became a Mormon. I have no problem with that. If it makes her happy, who am to say. What I actually said, not that it matters to you, is that I think selecting a Mormon had an effect.
 
Look sink, you are probably a good guy. But your fanatic, unreasonable loyalty to 'Republicanism' is kind of absurd. Pull your head out. You should take a breath, look around, and see what it is you see when your head in not buried in the butt of the GOP. Those guys are not your friends, no matter what they tell you.
 
You are just as much a victim of this schtick as all of us are. Take a breath. Breathe man.
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline 240B

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It would seem that there is one ground of agreement between GOP moderates and GOP tea partiers:  if their horse doesn't get the nomination, then they want the democrat to win.  What a shame.

These days, it is same thing anyway. In the famous words of Queen Hillary, "What difference does it make!?"
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline Chieftain

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It would seem that there is one ground of agreement between GOP moderates and GOP tea partiers:  if their horse doesn't get the nomination, then they want the democrat to win.  What a shame.

Its very early......let's not all slash our wrists just yet......

 :smokin:

« Last Edit: April 10, 2014, 03:15:25 am by Chieftain »

Offline Millee

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As I read earlier, if God save us it comes down to Jeb vs. Hillary, we'll have the first female President vs. Bush III to make it to office, what will be more excitable to the unwashed?? 

Offline MBB1984

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Under that scenario, my money's on ending up with President Hillary Clinton.

Shillary would thrash Bush.  People remain tired of the Neocons and preemptive war.  Bush's embrace of amnesty will dishearten the base quite thoroughly.  There are no good memories of either Bush 1 or Bush 2.

Look for the media to shill for Bush 3 at every opportunity if and until he wins the nomination.  Then they would negatively unload on him at every opportunity.