Jeb Bush is still smarting from his total route in the primaries:
Donald Trump got an assist from a higher authority to win the Republican nomination, according to one-time rival Jeb Bush.
“The pope intervening in American politics didn’t help,” Bush said in an interview Monday with MSNBC, referring to the Mass the pontiff said at the US-Mexico border just before the South Carolina primary — highlighting a hot-button issue for Trump, who has vowed to build a wall there.
“The news cycle was dominated by that. Trump, to his credit, was very smart at exploiting these kind of opportunities,” Bush griped.
“You’re a Catholic blaming the pope?” interviewer and former Bush staffer Nicolle Wallace wondered.
“No, no, I’m not blaming,” Bush said with a laugh. “I mean, [I had] been talking about basically open borders at a time when the whole Trump phenomena was to build a wall and let, make Mexico pay for where he goes — literally goes to the border for a massive Mass.”
Bush added, “And he had every right to preach the gospel there. But I don’t think he should be intervening. I don’t know if he understood that he was intervening in our political affairs.”
After placing fourth in the South Carolina primary, with 7.8 percent of the votes, Bush threw in the towel.
Go here to read the rest. This is truly pathetic. The Bush backers spent 130 million in the primaries and they might as well have poured gasoline over it and had a weenie roast for all the difference the money made. If Bush wants to blame someone he could begin and end by looking in a mirror. The fellow looking back at him was responsible for his lifeless campaign, uninspiring speeches, and barely concealed contempt for the average Republican voter.
Bush is for open borders. Millions of GOP primary voters are against. The Pope simply shined a light on the issue.
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“. . . contempt for the average Republican voter.” That pretty much sums up the (chamber of commerce, crony capitalist, big-government, no different than liberals) GOP since Reagan (of blessed memory) left us.
Jeb Bush who?
I can think of a half-dozen fatal flaws in his campaign that had nothing to do with immigration. No base, no vision, no issues other than the one where he was on the opposite side of the party, unlikable, uninteresting as a speaker, and – here’s a fun one – a weak political resume. Yeah, that’s maybe not a fatal flaw, but he’d done nothing for the past 8 years, and this race was filled with senators and governors. He hadn’t even spent the last 8 years campaigning for the office, like some out-of-power candidates had. Add in a divisive last name and a more appealing candidate from the same state, and really, open borders was the best thing he had going for him.
It would have been a saving grace for Jeb if had said he did disagree with the Pope on various issues. He lost an opportunity which may be the story of his life. Jeb is too risk averse.
*sigh* Says something that I assumed this was going to be about W, and didn’t even consider his brother.
On his tombstone, “Please clap”
Sad. This guy’s elective office career is finished. Only he doesn’t know it.
Amnesty for illegal aliens is a loser issue.
Supporting it in opposition to the base was stupid.
I don’t think Jeb’s contempt for the average R voter was the least bit disguised. He made it plain that he intended to win the R nomination for prez without the support of the party’s base.
Excellent point, “Christian Teacher”: after all, all of us polydactyls and toothless inbreds need to be managed, but better yet, ignored. So we gave up the House of Hanover and the House of Windsor for the House of Bush?
And now, to watch him sulk and aggrieve his wounded ego: it is too much. JEB! to me = SULK!
“Jeb Bush who?”
Jeb Bush the guy who would have been president except for the fact that his mummy and daddy told him that his older brother had to take the first turn, despite his arguably better abilities. Family politics around the swimming pool went national.
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“This guy’s elective office career is finished. Only he doesn’t know it.”
He knows it, which is why he is now angling for appointive office.
I didn’t see that. But I would sympathize if I had for reasons including (1) those voters gave the party Trump and (2) I come across a lot of supposed Republican conservatives who belly-ache loudly while sitting on their hands. Those of us who have been in the arena often find their moaning and complaining and inactivity to be disgusting.
Oh, I agree that Trump is a terrible messenger for the disgruntled Republican rank and file, which is why I am not voting for him, but the unhappiness is clear. Bush viewed any one opposed to open borders as a racist and he got what he deserved from Republican voters. The idea that it is racist to enforce immigration laws is a product of Democrat leaders who benefit from identity politics voting and Republican leaders willing to sell out their voters for a donor class eager to import cheap labor, or who have drunk their own Kool-Aid touting that Hispanics are “natural conservatives”. The average American is then left to deal with declining wages and crime ridden communities in areas with lots of illegal aliens. Republicans voted in 2010 and 2014 to cut off illegal immigration. Candidates ran on this, and after elected the GOP leadership promptly acted as if this issue didn’t exist. If the GOP establishment next week wants to ponder who is responsible for Trump, they only have to look in the mirror.
It don’t mean nothing. Bankrupt IL will big-time go for Hillary.
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The oldest Bush promised no tax hikes then raised taxes (even angry, Trump nincompoops know what that is called) and then gave us eight years of crooked Clintons.
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The next Bush (with Hillary’s support and senate votes) gave us the unnecessary (Saddam tried to poison his Pa?) Iraq war, a huge new entitlement (Medicare Part D), another federal grab of control over education – “no child left behind,” the housing bubble/great recession, and eight years of (evil, unjust America must be fundamentally transformed) Obama.
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Low-energy Jeb wants open borders. Okay. But, Milton Friedman said, “You can have open borders. And, you can have the welfare state. But, you can’t have both.” If they had GOP- values or even half a brain, Jeb and the loser/no-different-than-democrat, establishment GOP would know that.
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Two most recent losers, McCain and Romney, allowed a serial-liar, community agitator/racial racketeer to wreck America.
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Maybe things are too far gone and nobody can fix the mess 100 years of geniuses have given us.
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Don’t believe your lying eyes – the caliphate/Islamist terror is advancing on all fronts, $19 trillion national debt, huge on and off budget deficits, bankrupt state governments, insolvent private and public pension funds, unacceptable and unsatisfactory low labor force participation rates, wage stagnation, declining middle class, an unsustainable 47% of Americans dependent on the government hand-outs, Obamacare hasn’t had time to kill off the private-sector economy, . . .
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President Mrs. Bill Clinton will finish it.
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My question is why does Trump want to be President?
Micha Elyi-
The Trumpers brag about how many Democrats and “independents” voted for him.
There are times I can see the logic of voting for Trump. I totally get Hillary and Jeb and all the stated reasons against them and thus why we need Trump.
But there is this disturbing hint that Trump is a dangerous man with proto-fascist tendencies to ruthlessly crush all dissent. Using whatever means necessary. I find the man disturbing. And we may rue the day we let him in he door, even at the cost of enduring a man like Jeb.
I specifically refer to the latest e-mail leak that came out of the Republican Rules Committee debate in which one of Trump’s political opponents was physically threatened. And not just any old kind of threat, but the threat all good fascists use, which is to back up heir threat with the force of State Power. IOW, not just a personal threat, but on behalf of the entire U.S. government.
I refer to a threat made to Utah delegate Stefani Williams,musing her Constitutional right of assembly to participate in legitimate Republican Rules debate. From the news site RawStory.com:
“WGRZ News reporter Danny Spewak reported on an email sent from top Trump ally Carl Paladino to Utah Republican delegate Stefani Williams that tells her she deserves to be hung if she tries to overthrow Trump at the RNC.”
“You should be hung for treason, Stefani,” Paladino wrote. “There will not be a Republican Party if you attempt to replace Trump. I’ll be in your face in Cleveland.”
That should not be acceptable by a man headed to the most powerful position in the history f the world.
It reminds me of the televised debate in which he was asked about how he would deal with a Military Officer who refused to obey an unconstitutional order to torture non-combatants for information, (which said Officer would be REQUIRED to disobey). That Trump would take the position to begin with is chilling. That he would threaten the anonymous Officer with his Presidential power fills me with dread. Threats then, like Paladino’s, are part of a theme I find particularly dangerous to our Constitutional Republc from this man’s candidacy. I WANT to like him. I want to vote for him. But this needs to be addressed by responsible leaders before it’s too late,
Think about this. What would Hillary’s and Trump’s responses be to the question, “What place does Christianity have in America?”
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The war against Christians is flagrant. It is about to be lost. Christianity will have no place in America.
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My opinion, the valid concerns you raise are miniscule problems compared to the destruction of our way of life when Hillary gets her hands on all this power.
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Alas, all is lost. We are looking for reasons not to vote for Trump while in leaps and bounds the beast advances in Hillary’s flinty breast.
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Got ammo?
T. Shaw, I hear you. I agree with you in many ways. I do not pretend to have the answer to this perplexing question.
I just wish that there was a general recognition of Trump’s worrisome, potentially fatal propensities. These are acknowledged, perhaps, but not given the weight they deserve. Republicans were tested during the Primaries, and were found to value utility over principle. They accepted him as he is. Having made that Faustian bargain we are left with the consequences which will manifest themselves increasingly over time as we continue the necessary utilitarian compromise that enables this man to deliver what we want him to deliver.
With our nation, as with our Church, I am supremely tired of compromising my principles for the sake of some worthy cause or another. We tend to forget the weight of them all as they pile up.
The man must serve the Office. The Office must not serve the man. We are rapidly losing that core principle completely.
I agree with T. Shaw. We can’t have Hillary. She has already indicated that some of our beliefs must change. Now ask yourself what is the only (legal) way of not having Hillary as President?
Michael, I find I have to agree. Mike Pence helps a lot. That shows good judgement. Maybe Trump is a serious man, after all.
John Hinderaker of Powerline blog speaks for me. With reference to Hillary’s comment about the Nice murders, “Islam is not our enemy, Muslims are a peace loving people, etc”, Hinderaker goes on to say:
“We simply cannot afford another four years of such mind-numbing stupidity in the White House. Donald Trump has many faults as a presidential candidate. You don’t need me to list them for you. But he is not Hillary Clinton, he is not committed to a view of the world’s dangers that is almost literally insane,”
As you say: “We can’t have Hillary”.
Please, God, not Hillary!