The DEMS haven't made any announcements and it appears that Hillary may be kept busy for a bit. "3rd party exhibitionist crackpot" is name-calling by the way, so it's fair play when I mention Rhinocerotidae. I sure as hell would vote for a 3rd party candidate over Bush.
I posted this earlier on another thread.
Here's an online review of a book you should read. I assume that you read stuff other than what's posted in these forums and WND. The book is called "Conservative Hurricane. How Jeb Bush Remade Florida."
This is an at-times-dry but generally useful assessment of Jeb Bush's eight years as governor of Florida. After a couple of introductory chapters covering the history of Florida and of the Republican Party, the author, a professor of political science, makes the case that Bush turned Florida into "an executive-driven conservative public-policy showcase."
On economic policy, Mr. Bush turned Florida, which already had no state income tax, into an even lower-tax state by implementing what Professor Corrigan describes as “the largest tax cut in Florida’s history,” a reduction of about $20 billion. Tort reform capped punitive damages for businesses. He privatized the state government’s personnel department, its child protective services, its prison food services, its Medicaid program, and its defense of death-row inmates.
The state government workforce was reduced by 12%, as Mr. Bush pursued a goal he set out in his second inaugural address: “I look forward to the time when these buildings of government are empty. There would be no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these buildings around us empty of workers — silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill.”
On education reform, Mr. Bush gave schools A through F letter grades based on student test scores, gave students in failing schools vouchers for private schools, and implemented merit pay for teachers. Test scores jumped, as did high school graduation rates.
On social issues, Mr. Bush put an emphasis on life. The state issued optional “choose life” license plates, passed a parental notification law for minors who wanted abortions, and restricted late-term “partial-birth” abortions. He went to great lengths in an ultimately fruitless attempt to prevent Terri Schiavo’s husband from having Schiavo’s feeding tube removed.
He created two “faith-based prisons” over the objections of the American Civil Liberties Union. By executive order, he eliminated race and gender-based affirmative action in public college admissions and in state contracting, denouncing a sit-in protest by two black lawmakers as “childish.”
Mr. Bush backed gun rights by supporting a “stand-your-ground” law, signing legislation preventing gun ranges for being sued for causing pollution, requiring stores that sell hunting and fishing licenses to make voter registration applications available, and exempting concealed-weapons licenses from disclosure under the state’s public records laws.
Philosophically, as Professor Corrigan describes it, Mr. Bush saw big government as eroding character and virtue. Bush is certainly no pure libertarian; among other things, he approved half a billion in state and local incentives to lure the non-profit Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County from California. While Mr. Bush used his line item veto to block hundreds of millions in spending approved by his Republican legislature, the state budget overall did increase on his watch to about $74 billion from about $49 billion, according to Mr. Corrigan. Some of that increase was hurricane relief and Medicaid, partially reimbursed by the federal government, and it also came at a time when the value of the dollar was declining relative to gold.
Professor Corrigan, who teaches political science and public administration at the University of North Florida, delivers a sometimes critical but nonetheless generally admiring portrait of Mr. Bush’s record as governor from 1999 to 2007. The point is that, like his record or hate it, Mr. Bush's policy accomplishments were substantial.
Jeb is socially conservative.
He is staunchly pro life.
He is fiscally conservative.
He is a tax cutter.
He is pro business.
He believes in smaller government.
He is pro 2nd Amendment.
Most importantly, he's actually DONE all of these things as an Executive. He's not just talking about what he would do if he were an Executive.
And unlike any other GOP candidate or possible candidate, we know EXACTLY where he stands on EVERY FACET of the issue of immigration.
P.S. Here's what Ted Cruz had to say about Jeb's other issue... Common Core during his candidacy announcement:
Instead of a federal government that seeks to dictate school curriculum through Common Core... imagine repealing every word of Common Core.Cruz apparently thinks that the Common Core is embedded in a federal law that can be repealed. It isn't. The federal government is forbidden by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 from dictating school curriculum.
The Common Core State Standards initiative is a series of K-12 standards in math and English Language Arts and aligned standardized testing that was set in place by the National Governor's Association. It was fully adopted by 45 States making this Common Core an exercise in Federalism. It is
not a curriculum. The States set the curriculum.
Now, "conservatives" are supporting the idea of engaging the Federal government in overturning a bipartisan exercise in Federalism and calling Jeb Bush a liberal for supporting Federalism.
That's just ignorant.
