Florida GOP leaders push for Jeb in 2008

[Nambe]

By JILL BARTON Associated Press

If you ask Florida's Republican leaders about the future of their party, many have a one-word response, and it typically comes with the same exclamation point that adorns red bumper stickers across the state: Jeb!

While most of this year's delegates to the Republican convention say they're focused on the re-election of George W. Bush as president, many already are thinking ahead to 2008 and the possibility of keeping a Bush in the White House for 16 straight years. ,,

More than a third of Florida Republican delegates who responded to a survey by The Associated Press said they favored Jeb Bush as their party's presidential candidate in 2008. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was the second choice, but drew only a few votes from the 112 delegates. Nearly half of those surveyed made no prediction, instead saying they are working to make sure the governor's older brother keeps the White House through 2008 before looking ahead to the next race. ..
Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[wolfgirl]

1. bleeeccchhhh

[arwalden]

13. A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

[cthrumatrix]

2. this is a non-starter....the boy king has forever soiled the bush name

[sandraj]

4. I would agree except

I thought that about Bush 41. :eyes:

[aquart]

9. Does he have a child who has NOT been arrested?

[LisaL]

19. Republicans don't really care about all that

because they are hypocrites.

[carpetbagger]

12. Like poppy in '92?

No, Jeb remains a force. There's a real charisma vacuum in the republican party among those who have what it takes to win the nomination. Sure, well hear Rudy Rudy Rudy, but the guy's going to wilt, like Joementum left out in the sun too long, in the southern and midwestern primaries. The nomination will be decided upon by party leadership, the Club-for-growth/Swift-boat moneybags, and the media. Jeb is in good standing, win or lose, with most of them. The question is if anyone will take over the media darling role sufficiently enough to counteract Bush's continuing influence.

McCain's persona non grata, and old. Frist has some connections, but his star has faded mightily. Most of the other Senators who would be "ready for prime time" either lack ideological purity or sufficient charisma. Tickets like Hatch/Warner or Alexander/Bond make me drool, but they won't beat Jeb. I also don't think the GOP rank and file will drink Santorum-flavored Kool-aid, no matter how excited the base gets about him. Bush's cabinet yields no winners, being that Powell (a) won't run, and (b) won't win the primary (see next sentence). Pataki's pro-abortion rights, and there aren't any other major or semi-major state governors with an American birth certificate who have sufficient popularity to challenge Jeb.

Short answer: Jeb may win by default.

[Rowdyboy]

3. The Royal House of Bush

Sounds more like a whorehouse than a dynasty.

[chromotone]

5. "Are we having enough of the Bush Family yet?"

My new bumper sticker...

[Fionn]

6. The Depressing thing is

He may well end up being their nominee. It's not as if they'll ever nominate Rudy or McCain.

[Dirty Hippie]

8. John McCain is going to rue the day

he ever supported *ush. They are going to use him up and dump him like a cheap whore when they are done.

[LisaL]

20. Well, if that happens

he will only get what he deserves for supporting Bush.

[aquart]

10. Oh, like Catkiller Frist isn't ambitious. Or Pataki.

[carpetbagger]

14. Pataki is pro-choice.

The GOP will no more likely nominate a candidate who supports abortion rights than we will nominate someone who calls for the overturning of Roe.

Frist has ambition, but he's extremely vulnerable to Jeb on a number of levels, including appeal outside the south, general charisma, and Frist's heavy links to corporate medicine. Not that Jeb Bush is a friend of the consumer, but that he might pick up points in the primaries as well as the general election on some "compassionate conservative" theme that he has no intention to carry out.

[redstateblues]

15. Frist Has Been a Failure As Majority Leader-

He has not won any fans in the GOP by his mishandling of their legislative agenda

[newyawker99]

25. Hi Rionn!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[aquart]

7. Desperately want him out of Florida, huh?

[flordehinojos]

11. Just the thought of it puts a damper on this bright sunny day for me.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[leesa]

16. The GOP sure love their criminals.

[JohnnyRingo]

17. And I think that by '08 the name Bush will be such that

...Herbert Hoover's brother would have stood a better chance.

Maybe if he changes his last name to something less notorious.....Like Nixon.

[NEOBuckeye]

18. If George wins in 2004, Jeb can forget 2008.

Even the GOP leaders are fearful of a perpetual Bush dynasty. That Jeb Bush would even be considered for the presidency now is only because the machine behind his father and brother still largely remains intact, and also largely because the GOP has failed to take on and support fresh blood and initiatives that would rival or trump the Bush machine. This very much remains a party of stodgy, old white males whose continued reign of authority depends almost entirely upon perpetuating the millitary-industrial complex and America's fossil fuel dependency. For this very same reason, the Republican Party is becoming increasingly vulnerable to total collapse, should the Bush machine finally be countered and broken by the same order and justice it has for so long desperately sought to subvert.

I think Rove, Cheney and the other neo-conservatives' apparent good fortunes within the Bush machine are nearly at an end, however. If George wins in November, they will surely be exposed and brought down within the next four years by other government operatives who have grown too weary of their endless policy fuck-ups, intentional or otherwise, to allow them to continue unopposed. Once the machine is broken, so are Jeb's presidential aspirations. His best hope may very well be to root against his brother, so that the machine can duck underground and re-emerge intact in another four years.

[seasat]

21. I'm a Floridian and would do what ever it take to defeat Jeb.

I think a Jeb presidency would be orders of magnitude worse. Dubya just likes wearing the hat. Jebbie actually believes their crap. I'd take a leave of absence from work just to help a campaign against Jebbie.

[agincourt]

22. We deserve whatever we get,

if we tolerate a royal family of degenerates in power indefinitely.
Time to break out from a another rotten monarchy in our nation's history.

[Jack Rabbit]

23. I'd like to see Jeb get a four-year term, too . . .

. . . for election fraud.

[drdtroit]

24. The GOP

Party of no ideas and itellectual sloth!