Real news may have been made last night on, of all sources, PMSNBC's "Hardball" when the Washington Post's Kathleen Parker (that other Kathleen in Matthew's life not his wife) told him on national TV that Jeb Bush is "definitively" running in 2016. She was "told" this by "reliable people," though not by Jeb himself (she is waiting on his call). In her words, "once [not if] he declares, that becomes a certainty..." She also said "Mike Huckabee is not running," and characterized that as "another news making moment."
If this proves out to be true, the media will have its coveted dynastic circus: an American electoral War of the Roses. Jeb is all but certain to buy and bludgeon his way to the Republican nomination should he enter the race. He will have the support of all the major sources of serious elite money, and the "populist" (i.e. tea party, libertarian, etc.) opposition will be underfunded and split on an alternative candidate to Jeb's wedge and war plutocracy. Jeb is also highly likely (if not exactly all but certain) to lose to Hillary Clinton in the general election, as a crucial percentage of the hard right nativist base will sit out the election if Jeb is the nominee, and "Bush fatigue" will keep him perpetually behind among non-ideological voters.
Jeb vs. Hillary may prove out to be an example of 1964 in reverse: a case where the GOP establishment, rather than the base, is so out of touch with reality by promoting a quintessential expression of their own interests (and aspirations) they forget such a candidate is a completely unelectable choice especially when you factor in his poisonous political pedigree. A recent poll put Jeb's favorability rating among voters generally at a rate lower than both the tea party and Rand Paul. In the word's of the last Bush "war" president, "bring it on!" Nothing more than a photo ID gets you into the tent, for free, to the greatest political show on earth.
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