# Well, I guess we better talk about Jeb Bush. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 31, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981 "2014-03-31T13:34:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/41 "2014-03-31T23:17:53Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Why do we think he’s thinking about running again? Because [there’s a movement to draft him](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/influential-republicans-working-to-draft-jeb-bush-into-2016-presidential-race/2014/03/29/11e33b06-b5f2-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html). Which is a difficult thing for any pol to resist. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/42 "2014-03-31T23:23:30Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Why do we think he’s thinking about running again? Because he [flew out to Las Vegas](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/03/22/sheldon-adelson-plans-vip-dinner-for-jeb-bush-at-gop-gathering-in-vegas/)to suck Sheldon Adelson’s cock. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/43 "2014-03-31T23:24:50Z")
The [del]secret rulers of the universe[/del] GOP fundraising powerbrokers are [talking about him](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/2016-will-chris-christies-pain-be-jeb-bushs-gain/), which means he’s talking to them. ETA: whoah, double ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/44 "2014-03-31T23:54:49Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > If you HAD to have a Republican president, he would be one of the lesser evils. Of course you still get a guy who says he’s skeptical about global warming (because his corporate masters tell him to be), [snip] OK, stop right there. That’s not acceptable. In the Great Plains, climate change is shaping up to mean an enormous amount of drought. Globally, it’s going to drive mass relocations of entire nations, and lots and lots of war. That’s not a “lesser evil” at this point. It’s an unacceptable bit of ostrich’s-head-in-the-sand. We would literally be better off with death camps for Mexicans or forced re-education of sexual deviants. _Climate change is going to be worse than those unthinkably fascistic things would be._ It will lead to a dozen “Trail of Tears” equivalent situations worldwide, and in the USA, the slow, burning death of the breadbasket. And let’s be clear: Jeb’s denialism is because of the Bush family’s ties to big fossil fuels and that subculture of wealthy oilmen. If that’s also the GOP today, well, the Bushes were at the center of that for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/45 "2014-04-01T02:01:05Z")
I guess none of you lived in Florida during Bush’s two terms here. Don’t let him fool you, Jeb thinks the only role government has to fulfill is to make his supporters rich, other than that, it’s starve the beast all the way. Fuck you, I got mine (and my buddies will get theirs thanks to your tax dollars). Also, you think Bush or Obama ran an “imperial presidency”? Wait 'til you get a load of a Jeb White House. Congress will do what it’s told or it gets the hose again. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/46 "2014-04-01T02:04:30Z")
I lived here. And yeah, he choked the government, but he wasn’t Rick Scott. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/47 "2014-04-01T02:29:04Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > OK, stop right there. That’s not acceptable. In the Great Plains, climate change is shaping up to mean an enormous amount of drought. Globally, it’s going to drive mass relocations of entire nations, and lots and lots of war. > > That’s not a “lesser evil” at this point. It’s an unacceptable bit of ostrich’s-head-in-the-sand. We would literally be better off with death camps for Mexicans or forced re-education of sexual deviants. _Climate change is going to be worse than those unthinkably fascistic things would be._ It will lead to a dozen “Trail of Tears” equivalent situations worldwide, and in the USA, the slow, burning death of the breadbasket. > > And let’s be clear: Jeb’s denialism is because of the Bush family’s ties to big fossil fuels and that subculture of wealthy oilmen. If that’s also the GOP today, well, the Bushes were at the center of that for a long time. I agree- but it is Republican orthodoxy that climate change is a hoax. There was a bill introduced to direct NOAA to stop studying it, I’m sure it will pass the House. If you are a Republican, you absolutely cannot admit that science is right about global warming and get the nomination, it is too deeply ingrained in the base that it is a hoax and there is nothing that will convince them otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/48 "2014-04-01T02:54:37Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I agree- but it is Republican orthodoxy that climate change is a hoax. There was a bill introduced to direct NOAA to stop studying it, I’m sure it will pass the House. If you are a Republican, you absolutely cannot admit that science is right about global warming and get the nomination, it is too deeply ingrained in the base that it is a hoax and there is nothing that will convince them otherwise. Until that changes, then, there must **never** be another Republican POTUS. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/49 "2014-04-01T03:34:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Until that changes, then, there must **never** be another Republican POTUS. :rolleyes: Single issue voting is for small minds. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/50 "2014-04-01T04:00:02Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > :rolleyes: > > Single issue voting is for small minds. Really? What if there is a candidate who agrees with you on everything, but says “the Second Amendment says a ‘well-ordered militia’ and since most people who own handguns aren’t in a well-ordered militia, fuck them, I want the guns”. You’d vote for that guy? Or do you just have a small mind? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/51 "2014-04-01T04:00:04Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > He’d probably end up as a sort of Republican Clinton, and I assume we could all live with that. The problem with that logic is that he’d still sign whatever batshit legislation a GOP Congress sent his way. At this late date, I can’t see a non-batshit GOP President controlling a GOP Congress. They’d be the dog, and he’d be the tail. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/52 "2014-04-01T04:07:13Z")
I’ve heard so many Jeb-as-GOP-savior stories that I’m skeptical every time a new one appears. Maybe he’s in for real this time, but it’s going to take a lot to convince me that’s the case. Just a year he made the smallest feint in this direction by putting out a book about immigration, but he got a bad reception and immediately went back into seclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/53 "2014-04-01T04:08:58Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Really? What if there is a candidate who agrees with you on everything, but says “the Second Amendment says a ‘well-ordered militia’ and since most people who own handguns aren’t in a well-ordered militia, fuck them, I want the guns”. You’d vote for that guy? Or do you just have a small mind? The chance of someone agreeing with me on all issues but the Second Amendment is virtually non-existent. Elections are mostly about choosing the lesser of two evils. For all I know, Kerry may have been a gun grabber–I don’t remember his stance on the issue. I chose him over W because I despised W. Still do. Worst POTUS of my lifetime (which includes Nixon AND Carter). ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/54 "2014-04-01T07:51:36Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I actually don’t know that he’d really run. There is just no escaping the family connection, and that’s going to be an albatross. I don’t think you can just run against George W. Bush to beat him, but you don’t have to, in the public’s eye there’s going to be an association with GWB. While I think the short-attention span voters who rated Bush very lowly at the end of his term have now mostly moved on and don’t care about him, it’s still an albatross around his neck. > > Then there is I think going to be a certain little r-republicanism intrinsic in the United States that I think would give people a subconscious aversion to making a guy President whose brother and father were both also President. Imagine a sitting President with two members of his nuclear family that were also President, it just smacks of a “dynasty” which is not what this country is about. You think that’s bad, just wait until Jeb’s son - the \*third \*George Bush - gets his turn at bat. [He sure seems to be preparing for the majors…](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/george-p-bush-texas-land-commissioner-2014-elections-104260.html) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/55 "2014-04-01T10:05:05Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > For all I know, Kerry may have been a gun grabber–I don’t remember his stance on the issue. There hasn’t been a “gun grabber” running for President in eons. There have probably been a handful of fringe Dems in the past few decades who wanted to take guns from people, but they were exactly that - fringe. > [@](#): > > I chose him over W because I despised W. Still do. Worst POTUS of my lifetime (which includes Nixon AND Carter). If your lifetime included Nixon and Dubya, but \*didn’t \*include Carter, you’d have quite the story to tell. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/56 "2014-04-01T11:40:06Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > :rolleyes: > > Single issue voting is for small minds. Ordinarily, I’d agree with you but I think this issue is pretty deep. What it tells me about Republican candidates is that they will quite happily ignore scientific facts and risk an ecological catastrophe because they don’t have the courage to tell their voting base what they don’t want to hear. If these candidates would place their own elections above the welfare of the planet, what else would they do in the name of getting elected? What it tells me about the Republican base is that they are completely oblivious to facts and will stubbornly believe what they want to believe, and will reject any idea in conflict with their alternate reality. And what it tells me about corporate America is that they will play on the willful ignorance of the Republican base and demonize anyone who dares to suggest that anyone who would cut their profit margins in any way, be it by new environmental regulations, tax policies, or raising minimum wages. So for me it’s more than just this single issue, it’s this closed mind mentality that makes any and all Republican candidates completely unacceptable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/57 "2014-04-01T14:01:59Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > :rolleyes: > > Single issue voting is for small minds. Not always. Depends on the issue. This one dwarfs all the rest in all-importance. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/58 "2014-04-01T14:15:23Z")
**Oakminster** , why do you keep calling the people who _don’t_ want to grab guns “gun grabbers”? It’s groups like the NRA who are always grabbing guns. ---
**Author:** ![2ManyTacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/3da27b/32.png) [@2ManyTacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ManyTacos)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/59 "2014-04-01T14:24:45Z")
If we get to the point in which the best this country can do in ‘16 is a fuckin’ retread of Clinton v. Bush, well…I guess that I’ll become even more disenchanted with our political state of affairs than I already am. But seriously, I can’t imagine how the national electorate - nevermind the GOP primary voting bloc - could possibly respond in a favorable way to ANOTHER Bush presidential candidate. The thing with HRC is that most people tend to reminisce about the Clinton presidency in a positive way, and the argument in her favor is that an HRC administration would (by extension) be similarly as prosperous. On the flipside, people look back at the Bush’s and just think…er, yuck. But in my case, I’ll keep beating the Schweitzer-for-President drum until the actual nomination, so there it is. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981/60 "2014-04-01T14:39:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > **Oakminster** , why do you keep calling the people who _don’t_ want to grab guns “gun grabbers”? It’s groups like the NRA who are always grabbing guns. Because gun-take-away-ers doesn’t scan as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-guess-we-better-talk-about-jeb-bush/684981.md?page=4)