What Mississippi probably means for 2016

The tea party will never take over the Republican Party.  Objectively, its high water mark as an inside force for the Republican Party's political fortunes has been reached and passed.  This is so because those funding it, and tolerating it for their benefit have now decided it no longer benefits them, and are openly hostile to it, and trying to destroy it as an organized force from within the party.

That does not mean the tea party as an oppositional force to the GOP establishment need be finished, necessarily, or that it will not have an impact in 2016.  It just won't have any impact from a party leadership level.  Ever.

The 2016 Republican nominee will be someone that Karl Rove supports.  There is a 100 percent certainty of that. It probably (but not certainly) will be Jeb Bush.  This is likely for a number of reasons. Jeb wants it. He, of course, does not want to dirty his own hands to get it, but he wants it, and if others can deliver it to him with a minimum of effort by him, he will go for it.

Also, his other likely adversaries, such as Chris Christie and Scott Walker, are self-destructing in scandal (well with perhaps a little help from others).  Paul Ryan is old, unelectable news (almost as old and unelectable news as JEB!).  That leaves John Kaisch as the only real credible establishment alternative to JEB!  Kaisch could be the nominee if enough of the monied elites in the party back him, and if JEB! bows out and leaves the field open for him. And Kaisch would not lose as badly to Hillary as JEB! would.  He might even be competitive.

JEB! will have "grassroots" opposition in the primaries.  No matter how much money Rove raises to buy him the nomination, and no matter how many dirty tricks Rove plays on his opponents, JEB! will still have to sully himself in a handful of unseemly debates with his inferiors. He will have to tolerate boos from the crowd when he advocates for guest workers and open borders, and Common Core, claiming all of it is truly conservative and loving and compassionate, and none of it has anything to do with depressing wages or workers' rights, or windfall and government subsidized profiteering for his brother's (and other donors and cronies') testing and Common Core-compliant school curriculum companies.

Buying the nomination for JEB! will be tricky and nasty.

It will further alienate a majority of the base. Which leads to the way the tea party can determine the election, or at least the margin of it.  They can stay home, or just enough of them can.  And probably enough of them will.

Sure 80-90 percent of the base will show up, as always. They will buy the about-face rhetoric from Levin, Rush, and other about how they must now support JEB! to avoid Hillary.  They will grudgingly accept JEB!'s assurances that he loves Jesus, and believes in "conservative" values.  But 10-20 percent will be fed up enough, and not drink the cool-aid anymore. That will be enough to mean the difference between JEB! losing to Hillary, and JEB! being humiliated by Hillary.  And there are plenty of those fed up, and cool-aid free, base voters who would not mind seeing him humiliated.

Weekly Standard:The Real Lesson from Mississippi

Hillary the neocon?

She voted for Bush's war, and it cost her the 2008 nomination.  But will it cost her in 2016?

It's more than fair to say that George W. Bush's abject failures make Barack Obama president, and it may turn out to be equally fair to say that JEB! makes Hillary Clinton president, that is if the Republicans are stupid enough to offer him as their alternative to a Hillary presidency.  But do they really mind going down in flames for the sake of speculator class interest?

In President Hillary Clinton Would Be Far More Conservative Than You Think, the point is Hillary is a not so closet neocon who would be so acceptable to the American plutocracy that they might just go for broke and buy a JEB!-Hillary "non-choice" for voters in 2016.  If you can't have 100 percent of what you want with JEB!, you'll get 95 percent with Hillary and Bill.  One Republican-leaning Wall Street lawyer summed it up this way for his class:

"If it turns out to be Jeb versus Hillary we would love that and either outcome would be fine. We could live with either one. Jeb versus Joe Biden would also be fine. It’s Rand Paul or Ted Cruz versus someone like Elizabeth Warren that would be everybody’s worst nightmare.”

Kinda makes Jesse Venture look good.

Did Karl the Kingmaker overplay his hand?

Teabaggers, I AM your brain!

Karl Rove and Haley Barbour may have won the battle in Mississippi, and won it in a time-tested, ruthless Bush Republican way, but have they now lost the war? Quite possibly. Consider what it took to beat the tea party there, and how enraged the rabble now is.  Was Mississippi a real epiphany moment for the GOP base sheep? There is even talk among some outlier tea party leaders in the state of supporting the "Blue Dog" Democrat running against Cochran as a way to teach nasty Karl a lesson. That likely won't come to much, but consider what this all now portents for what it will take to install JEB! as the Republican nominee in 2016.  The blood-in-the-streets lengths required to buy Thad Cochran a Senate seat he already held may now pale in comparison to the machinations necessary to buy the Bush Crown Prince even a shot at an office he will never hold.

Republicans don't award the presidential nomination in a transparent and systematic manner that mirrors a proportional representation of the overall primary votes.  Democrats have followed this method pretty much ever since a party revolt following the convention debacle of 1968.  The GOP's memories of 1964 and 1976 have pushed them in the opposite direction.

Winning Republican primaries and caucuses doesn't necessarily add up to getting delegates and winning the nomination.  It is far more complex than that, and by design. In small and sparsely populated states where grassroots movements could embarrass the party establishment, primaries are often mere "beauty contests," and delegates are selected by party bosses at state conventions. In caucus states, the media-publicized first round caucuses at the precinct level (think the Iowa caucus) award no national convention delegates at all; they merely select delegates to an ever ascending series of caucuses that lead to a state convention, controlled securely by state party leaders, which picks the national convention delegates. Big states that require lots of money to compete effectively in primaries award all national convention delegates (100 percent of them) automatically by party rules to a majority primary vote winner (meaning the one with the most money to make the biggest media ad buy).

It's easy to see how Karl Rove and his money machines can out-muscle, out-spend, and out-maneuver any tea party opposition in such a system, even a united tea party opposition.  And he will do whatever it takes, use every material resource at his disposal, and jettison every ethical scruple that gets in the way in order to do it.  And it may get real ugly.  And make sublimely arresting national political theater.

Hot Air: Outside groups spent $23 million to crush the tea party in GOP primaries this year

Uncle Toms for JEB!??

FAT! Rush recently (and by his own admission, deliberately) provoked a firestorm of publicity over his comment regarding "Uncle Toms for Thad." He did it as an obvious sarcastic rip of African-Americans scared out to vote for Thad Cochran in response to Karl Rove and Haley Barbour inspired dirty tricks in the Mississippi primary circus show used successfully to block tea party upstart Chris McDaniel.

To be fair to Rush (why not?), he defended his choice of language by pointing out how black Republicans have been vilified by Democrats as "Uncle Toms" for working in the W. Bush administration (Rice, etc.), running as Republicans (West, Keyes, Cain, etc.).  And to be fair to those African-Americans who voted for Cochran, why is it not plausible to believe they decided it was better for them in the end to have an old, worn-out white neo-conservative not representing them in the Senate rather than a young, energetic neo-confederate openly hostile to them in the Senate?

Rush may not understand that his "wrong" doesn't make the attacks on Keyes, Cain, etc. "right," but if the term "Uncle Tom" can be used, why can it not be use in a more creative, multicultural way for more targeted and appropriate satiric effect?

Consider how Rush, and soul mates like Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, etc. rail and rant against RINOs, and especially JEB!, as examples of plutocratic, crony capitalism and misguided (but illiberal) elitism gone wrong.  They are right in such criticism. Yet they will be out, guaranteed, as equally loud and frantic in the summer and fall of 2016 telling their listeners to vote for nominee JEB! and all these Karl Rove RINOs as the last best hope for smaller government, low taxes (lower taxes on unearned income for sure), and of course "constitutional conservative principles."

Call these "principles for sale" Shinola spewers and their subservient flock "Uncle Toms for JEB!" Fish-belly white ones.

Is JEB! creating a support/endorsement network with fundraising gigs?

News is that JEB! is planning a huge fundraising summit in Tampa this September for several GOP senatorial candidates.  This follows numerous fundraising events by the Crown Prince so far this spring and summer for various state and federal Republicans, both incumbent officeholders and wannabes. Why would a member of the Bush royal family do this if he were not looking to reenter politics himself? He could serve up typical Bush BS about "service" to party and country, etc., but look for the obvious motive, which is dynastic and self-interest down the road.  Such barnstorming would help create a network of quick and early endorsements for any presidential run should JEB! pull the trigger on that at the end of this year (he stills say he will let his potential backers know by then).

Jeb Bush plans big Tampa fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidates

Marketwatch is "off the rails" for JEB!

CBS Marketwatch is known as the dubious stalking ground for financial doomsday preppers like Paul Farrell, and now it's getting known for political fantasy mongering as well.  A recent Marketwatch op-ed offered, Obama’s blunders bolster Jeb Bush’s 2016 chances Opinion: Timing may be right for Republican dynasty.  If the market prognostications at CBS Marketwatch are as bad as the political predictions, investors should run in the other direction.

Forbes: Americans should ignore the neocons

It's not only Fox News that is giving the Cheney's and other neocon blatherers the cold shoulder these days. Forbes is getting with the program in such op-eds as America Should Stay Out Of Iraq's Revived Killfest: Only Iraqis Can Save Their Country and U.S. Meddling Inflames Middle East Conflicts: America Should Stop Trying To Fix Iraq, Syria, And Everywhere Else

Rove and Barbour buy one for Thad, but won't buy the White House for JEB!

If you were a movie producer and sent a request to "central casting" for a paunchy stereotype of a corrupted pay-to-pay southern reactionary politician turned lobbyist and plutocrat defender, they would send you back PR stills of Haley Barbour, the kingfish of Mississippi.  Barbour and Rove managed yesterday to buy back the Senate seat of their doddering crony, Thad Cochran, against a muscular threat from Dorian Gray tea party challenger Chris McDaniel. Rove did it the old fashioned Rove way, with PAC money and dirty tricks.  Rovian terror robo-calls to African-American Democratic voters telling them how much McDaniel hated black people, loved the Confederacy, and how much the tea party "disrespected" President Obama may have provided the margin of victory for Cochran in a rather close race.

The perverted, evil irony of Karl Rove shadow groups motivating Democrats to vote for a Bush Republican with bromides about how much the Rove-created tea party "disrespects" Obama is sickeningly laughable.  Disrespecting him like every Bush Republican does?  Like the Queen of Bush Republicans, Mitch McConnell does?  The same Mitch McConnell who said immediately after Obama was elected in 2008 he would work to make him a one term president?

A God that understands the failings of honest sinners more than moralistic hucksters, and that stands apart from and above the wickedness and mendacity of contemporary American partisan politics must be rejoicing in Heaven at the predicament of Karl Rove's Republican Party these days. Just always one primary election away from self-immolation due to a generation of cynical and fraudulent wedge politics that has finally driven its put-upon base of disrespected voters to a realization of the truth:  that no one in the Party of Bush is looking out for them.

Rove is running out of options, and running short of available elections he can rig and buy.  The 2016 Presidential general election with JEB! as his standard bearer will be his political Waterloo.

Hillary crushes JEB! in latest Iowa Quinnipiac poll

The air just keeps rushing out of the burst JEB! 2016 balloon.  Hillary trounces the Crown Prince by 13 points in the latest Iowa 2016 general election poll.  In fact JEB! comes in dead last among all GOP options polled.  In contrast Hillary beats Rand Paul by only six points. Should the party establishment dump JEB! in favor of some other less toxic "safe" option, could Wall Street speculators, war mongers, and the Chamber of Commerce ever tolerate a Rand Paul nomination?

Creative Loafing: Jeb Bush not polling well in Iowa

Poll: Clinton Leads Jeb Bush By Double Digits In Iowa

Neocon Brooks jumps ship on JEB!

David Brooks, the New York Times' resident "respectable" neocon, and Meet the Press regular, has publicly abandoned JEB! 2016, by declaring both he and Hillary to be "stale" choices for 2016.  See him say it here.

JEB! take's Obama's bait, and defends "No student left unprofitable"

JEB!, the nation's quintessential education crony corporatist, has come out with rhetorical guns for hire a-blazin' in defense of government-subsidized for-profit education, and his signature , "No Student Left Unprofitable" mantra. The Crown Prince last week denounced Obama's proposed "gainful employment" rule, which is aimed at (other than luring JEB! into rebuking it) holding accountable those career education programs that take taxpayer dollars, but consistently leave their students with overwhelming debt. JEB! played to his base while addressing (wanna bet he got paid?) the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, the main lobbying/trade group for government-subsidized for-profit education.  Despite the phony "private sector" name, this corporatist syndicate's largest for-profit colleges receive about 86 percent of their revenue from taxpayer dollars.

HP: Jeb Bush Denounces Obama Rule to Hold For-Profit Colleges Accountable for Burying Students in Debt

Is JEB! 2016 a "pathetic last resort" for crony capitalists and plutocrats?

Joan Walsh, one of the blathering heads on PMSNBC, has penned an interesting op-ed on Salon about the dead end choices facing the GOP establishment in 2016 in their quest to neuter the tea party.  You would expect hyperbole from Walsh when opining about Republicans, but she accidentally raises valid points.  With Christie and Scott Walker effectively no longer viable options for pro-plutocracy advocates, all that may be left includes a sure-fire losing short list with JEB! and Mitt's names on it.

Walsh even brings up the frantic effort, if the establishment blows the primaries, to pair JEB! as a VP on a ticket with an "acceptable" tea partyish nominee.  This seems a bizarre fantasy.

Two analogies should be debunked.  There is no parallel with 1980 when Reagan picked George HW Bush.  Back then, the Bush name was not toxic, and HW was considered a sane, moderate choice for VP.  If a tea partier wanted to replicate 1980, they would pick a moderate with no negative historical or familial baggage, and that certainly would not be JEB!.

JEB! is no Franz

The "Weimar Republic" analogy is fraudulent also.  In 1933, the Herrenklub establishment in Germany persuaded Hindenberg to appoint Adolf Hitler chancellor in a cabinet with minority Nazi members, and former reactionary establishment chancellor Franz von Papen as Hitler's vice chancellor.  Papen was presumed to be the real power center in the government (since his allies had more cabinet positions) who would protect establishment interests and prevent Nazi extremism.  History tells how well that worked out, but the US is not a parliamentary system, and if some tea partier were able to win the nomination in the primaries, why would they torpedo their already slim chances in November with the toxic and loathed Bush albatross around their neck when they wouldn't need it for anything?

Walsh, perhaps by design, does not include on on her pathetic short list Ohio Governor John Kaisch, who may yet emerge as the pluto's choice if he can say out of scandal and win reelection this year.

Salon - Republicans’ pathetic last resort: When Jeb and Mitt are your 2016 saviors

Kasich a Doer Who's Nobody's Guy

Herrenklub: Historical dictionary of Weimar Republik

"Mr. Pitchfork" says NO to JEB! 2016

Here's your living wage!

Before the tea party, there was Pat Buchanan. The man who talked about anti-globalist peasants wielding pitchforks, and whose insurgent 1992 primary campaign exposed
Poppy's glass political jaw, and began the long series of rounds to his defeat. In 2000 Pat inadvertently helped the Florida Secretary of State and the US Supreme Court elect W. president by his presence on the ballot in New Hampshire and South Florida.

Now Pat says JEB! won't be able to buy the 2016 GOP nomination.  He told Laura Ingraham, who is certainly no fan of JEB!, that Common Core and JEB!'s "open borders" agenda for big business would doom him with primary voters.

"I would be astounded if Jeb Bush stepped into the primaries and you know, cut a wide swath and became the nominee," Pat said.

Prepare to be astounded, Pat.

JEB! beats Hillary in one poll: which is most "reactionary"

A plurality of Americans, in an NBC/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll, believe both Hillary and JEB! represent the policies of the past.  Only 30 percent believe JEB! has any positive "new ideas and vision the country would need" while 42 percent believe Hillary might offer something relevant.  That could be near the exact popular vote totals between the two if a strong third choice is in the 2016 race.

What the poll, which breaks down very much along partisan lines, doesn't test is how American voters will view a third Bush running after the disastrous meltdown of Iraq.  Would voters fear another Bush means another certain war in the Middle East to, yet again, make it safe for western oil interests and the Bush family's historical reputation?  Would voters view the referendum, ultimately, as a choice between Clinton and Bush contrasting legacies on economic conditions?

A lot of JEB!'s baggage is built into his family name, and universally known.  Some of it will be specific to him (his educational cronyism, his dubious Lehman consulting gig) and isn't yet well known.

And Hillary is currently grappling with an embarrassing blast from her "young lawyer" past as an audio interview of her making some light of representing a child rapist decades ago has surfaced.

Expect a dynastic clash between the Bushes and Clintons to be ruthlessly negative and relentlessly nasty.  Since both would be selling essentially the same policies to defend elite interests, it's the packaging that will matter.

In hindsight, Clinton wasn't so bad

The delusion continues at FOX

FOX News is in the tank for JEB! 2016, there is not doubt.  As mentioned earlier, the network would likely either favor Hillary, or for the first time in its existence, actually be neutral if a tea partier got the GOP nomination.

Which explains why they picked Lanny Davis, a Beltway hack who has played both sides of the partisan divide in his career, to pen an op-ed explaining "Two reasons why Democrats should fear a Jeb Bush 2016 presidential run."  Davis' delusions include the idea that education and immigration will make him a strong candidate.

Democrats have every hope the GOP is stupid enough to nominate JEB!

Americans would have much to fear if JEB! could actually steal the election, which if God really does still Bless America, isn't likely.

Backing the GOP fatcats into a corner

Just when the power brokers thought it might be safe to give Christie another look after Iraq blew up and dampened JEB! fever, it now looks like Christie is beyond political redemption as the US Attorney is all but certain to indict Christie cronies, and attempt to squeeze them into offering up the boss.  Also certain to sour the taste of the pheasant in the clubhouse is news that dark horse option Scott Walker is likely to implode soon over his eyeball deep involvement in illegal fundraising schemes with Karl Rove.

That leaves John Kaisch (if he gets reelected in Ohio), Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and JEB!  Rove and Company will have to choose and back one candidate during the primary season to maximize the establishment's advantage over a split tea party field. Out of the four, only Kaisch would have any chance in a general election.

#StopJebNow: the hashtag heard 'round the world of nervous plutocracy

JEB! was in Cincinnati recently, fund raising and stumping for himself through other GOP candidates, and now grassroots conservative activists in Hamilton County, Ohio (called “the most important county of the most important state” for presidential politics) are organizing to send JEB! a message.  If you guessed it wasn't an endorsement, you would be right.
Their Twitter hashtag: #StopJebNow

Conservative Activists Coalesce in Key County to Send a Message to Jeb Bush

Is Murdoch gearing up to support Hillary?

Rupert Murdoch has made no secret of his intent to support Hillary Clinton in 2016 if the "wrong" person winds up the GOP nominee (meaning an off the reservation populist, or tea party type).  That, of course, is a long shot, and Fox will do everything it can to promote "sane" plutocrat enablers like JEB!, etc., but recent programming decisions at the Bush network indicate Plan B is being activated.

Witness Fox viewers' anger at Brett Baier's "softball" handling of Hillary, and now the "tough" grilling by Megyn Kelly of Dick Cheney, clearly delusional in denial, and a serious embarrassment to JEB! 2016 when he should just hold his tongue. Are we seeing Murdoch give the word to "condition" his viewers for the unthinkable?

Megyn Kelly grills Dick Cheney

Hillary easily beats JEB! on the "will never vote for" question

Not long ago, and reported in Jebwatch, polls revealed that as much as 49 percent of respondents stated they would never vote for JEB! under any circumstance.

Now a pollster has gotten around to asking folks that question about Hillary.  And, as you might guess, she does better.  Only 37 percent would "definitely oppose" her.  The poll did not specific if they asked whether or not there was any way they would vote for her if her opponent was Jeb Bush.

America Divided Over Hillary Clinton Presidency, NBC/WSJ Poll Finds

The Savage Weiner inadvertently reveals Hillary's strategy against JEB!

Michael Savage is the best stand up act going on hate radio these days. Through his schtick, which is like a voelkisch Catskills (via North Beach) lounge act, he sometimes drops a sane, relevant comment in the midst of (probably very calculated) paranoid, fringe hokum. He did it today.

Michael doesn't much like JEB!, which is to his credit, for the reasons you might expect: immigration, Common Core, and also for his neo-con imperialist connections, but Savage's show is not a place you would ever expect to hear praise for Hillary Clinton, however faint, so when you hear it, you take notice.

Savage complemented Hillary for her CNN comments about the groups of Central American children and teenagers who have illegally entered the country and are currently being held in US custody in detention camps.  According to Savage she is the only major politician to call outright for them to be deported, and she should be complimented for that.

Savage, whose hatred for Obama is boundless, would probably never concede to his audience that Obama himself has been tougher on illegal immigration than George W. Bush, who simply allowed open borders his entire presidency for the US Chamber of Commerce's sake.  The numbers to prove it are there in deportation statistics.  But Savage is implying something that is probably true:  Hillary's rhetoric, at least, will be tougher on illegal immigration during the 2016 campaign against JEB! than any presidential candidate in memory.  And it will be expertly triangulated in such a way that she does not come across as hostile to legal immigration, or Hispanics in general.

Hillary will run to the right of JEB! on immigration, and she will clean his clock over the issue.

Daily Caller: Hillary Clinton: Deport The Illegal Children Back To Central America

Plutocrat donors not willing to throw their unearned cash after bad candidates, yet...

Despite a fat cat Romney cash bundler's Freudian slip ("it is not a big community of major donors,"), the hoary club of "major donors" who will ultimately decide who gets the Republican nomination is in no hurry to decide on whom they will waste their cash.   Expect their decision not to rest much on whether someone can win the presidential election (all but a lost cause for 2016), but rather:

1.  Who can effectively stop the tea party in primaries without creating a full internal party civil war, and

2. Who can perform the number one task with a minimum of embarrassment to their donors.

It still promises to be a circus.



Republican fundraising for 2016 presidential race off to a slow start

Iraq and JEB!'s fantasy devolution to Veep

As Iraq burns, W. goes into hiding, and the media call out neocon talk heads for a televised Sunday morning freak show that has all the gravitas of a Kardashians episode, JEB!'s presidential hopes appear to have collapsed overnight.  Desperate Republican pluto donors are now even talking the unthinkable: going back to Romney in 2016 as their only way to stop the tea rabble.

Some JEB! loyalists won't completely give up on the delusion, though, as "JEB! the VP choice" is now being market-tested in the media.  No one would pick him for that, so expect the boomlet to be very short lived.

NJ DAILY: Jeb Bush for Veep?

Biden, the cuckoo clock, was probably right three times

It's been said, with some gleeful lack of profundity by many a dime store philosopher, that a broken clock is right twice daily.

Joe Biden is an amiable buffoon who has enjoyed an intimate history with malapropisms, a less amiable history of political plagiarism, and functions for the political right in sort of the same way as George W. Bush did for the political left: as a poster boy for alleged idiocy.  But to paraphrase a less idiotic politician, Lloyd Bentsen, I know Joe Biden, Joe Biden is a friend of mine, and he is no George W. Bush.

Biden was probably right about Iraq.  And now, the US should take, at least part of his advice, and support a fully independent Kurdistan in the northern part of what has been Iraq.

Iraq, as neoconservatives failed to learn, is not a country.  It has no historical basis in reality. It was an arbitrary colonial creation by oil-greedy Europeans following World War I, and the PNAC crowd's silly efforts to "nation build" a non-nation will go down in history as one of geopolitics' greatest, and most uninformed, follies.

What we call Iraq could only exist as the preserve of some despot like Saddam Hussein, forcing the elements of it together by force. Now that a far less capable despot is in charge, it's unraveling.

An independent Kurdistan would probably be a viable nation, and one that, at least, is not openly hostile to the United States.   It would control much of Iraq's oil wealth as well, and given the chaos unfolding, a nation of Kurdistan is probably something Turkey would be willing to accept at this point, and it would be hostile to Iran.

A "three state" solution accepted earlier, including a viable, non extremist Sunni Arab state, a smaller Shia state allied with Iran, and a US-friendly, Iran-hostile oil-rich and non-Wahabist Kurdistan would have been a better alternative to the worst case scenario unfolding now.

By stepping in, and promoting Kurdistan, the US can salvage something out of this mess.

Slate: Could Iraq's chaos lead to an independent Kurdistan?

The awe of Iraq's collapse should shock all JEB! 2016 promoters

JEB! was never going to be president, however the rapid and developing collapse of the neconservative-engineered puppet state in Iraq that resulted from the Iraq War has probably made even the argument for a general election-losing Jeb Bush candidacy a losing proposition.

It used to go like this.  JEB! buys the nomination, and runs as a "moderate" against the tea party by changing the Bush chameleon color from strident "values voter" baiter under W. to "guest worker" champion.  JEB! loses in a landslide to Hillary, but he goes down with false dignity, and sets the stage for a "kinder, gentler" form of reactionary plutocracy politics under his son George P.,  who runs as a Hispanic version of Obama in the next decade.

The collapse of Iraq negates this strategy.  The face of JEB! in a presidential campaign while the Middle East burns nightly on TV would be nothing but a 24/7 remainder of the abject, overreaching failure of neoconservatism under his brother.  The phony message about "inclusion" and "love" would never get aired.

If the Iraqi puppet regime can't turn their predicament around soon, JEB! 2016 isn't even viable as a bought nomination leading to a calculated loss with manufactured dignity.


WaPo: Who lost Iraq? The Iraqis did, with an assist from George W. Bush

Did Cantor sing Kaddish for JEB! 2016?

Eric Cantor's historic defeat at the hand of an angry electorate fed up with his elitist neglect of them pretty much encapsulates everything about the GOP's worst nightmare since the rise of the Bush family to national prominence on the knife's edge of Lee Atwater's sharpened wedges. Tell stupid voters what they want to hear at election time, then ignore them at all other times while you govern for your rich benefactors.  Cantor's arrogance became so acute that he thought he could get away with ignoring his voters even at election time.  The spectacle of him smoozing with lobbyists at some $100 a steak Ruth's Chris wannabe in DC the day before the election conjures apocryphal analogies of Gaulish townsfolk and their Roman garrisons reveling in the local arena while Goths stormed in, or the perfumed dandies at Versailles wondering what the all the noise was about when they looked up and saw pike-wielding mobs running up the driveway.

Cantor's loss should inform Rove, necons, and speculator class donors that their misplaced belief in JEB! as some "sane" and competitive Dorian Gray alternative to the actual image in the portrait of themselves they painted during two generations of bait and switch politics is their fatal delusion.  The painting is about to come out of the attic and into the gallery, for a really big postmodern exhibition.

NatJournal: Eric Cantor's Defeat Exposes Jeb Bush's Vulnerabilities in 2016

Breitbart: JEB BUSH 'BIG LOSER' IN CANTOR DEFEAT

Boston Herald: A wake-up call for GOP, Bush

But the political media are still largely in full denial:

Jeb Bush’s ‘Three Amigos’ Route to Victory

Nation: Jeb Bush Is Still on Track for 2016, Despite the Tea Party

In 2016, Jeb Bush would be a spokesman for sane conservatism

Democrats should take notice as well.  Twenty-five years of populist rhetoric under Clinton and Obama while party policy favored deregulation of Wall Street speculators, followed by unconditional bailouts will set a political price for them they will have to pay also at some future date.

What does a Disney character and a demoted planet have in common?

Susan Estrich, one of the token, resident "Democrats" over in Ailes-Murdochland, is now hyping a potential (just go ahead and say very likely) JEB!-Hillary matchup in 2016 as a desire for "safe choices."  If that is so, the real underlying unanswered question is, who desires this set of "safe" choices?  And "safe" for whom?

The answer lies in a riddle...

The first two syllables rhyme with a Disney canine and a demoted planet, and the third syllable with the third syllable of Estrich's alleged party affiliation.


Star Ledger: Estrich: Clinton-Bush contest could signal yearning for 'safe' choices

Apparently, this time, the word is "optimism," not "compassion"

Humble and compassionate

Years ago, an obscure religious cult bought a little fame with a series of folksy TV celebrity-hosted spots about "words from unity."  Each PSA style piece featured a new word for positive living.

The Bushes like to use ironic buzzwords to promote their negative political cult.  W. used "compassionate" to convince just enough moderate and independent voters that he was not the dim, uncreative neocon tool he turned out to be.

JEB! appears to favor the word, "optimism."  JEB! and "optimism" are getting a lot of linked press these days, both from gullible liberals, and neocon Bush boosters.

WaPo, E. J. Dionne: Jeb Bush’s optimism school

Jennifer Rubin: Jeb Bush and a vote for optimism

Jeb Bush's joyful and optimistic campaign

An inside straight draw, not an ace up the sleeve

Yes, the Bushes cheat at cards

Bush-friendly media are at it again, hyping the idea that JEB!'s alleged "Hispanic" friendly image puts him in a position to obtain the White  House in 2016.  The latest effort, entitled "Presidential Hopeful Jeb Bush Holds A Latin Ace Up His Sleeve commits a funny, and one would assume, unintended, Freudian slip.  The headline gets one thing right.  JEB! and Rove have no moral or ethical qualms about cheating at cards, or elections.  The only thing JEB! is going to get, whether off the top or the bottom of the presidential deck, however, is a joker.  And the joke is on him, and the plutocrats who think Hispanics are as gullible as "values voters."

Hispanics won't deliver the Presidency for JEB!, in a fair or a rigged election, but his family's legacy will keep the White House front gates forever locked for JEB!

The fog of myth

There is little doubt that Ronald Reagan is a secular saint among "conservative" Republicans, including those self-identified as the "tea party." When you compare the historical record to the mythology of Ronald Reagan, however, his path to political sainthood may have been made easier much as the path to papal sainthood in an era devoid of a Devil's Advocate.

For it's the historical record that would make Ronald Reagan, if he were just now entering politics in our era of reactionary nihilism  triumphant, unacceptable to the political right.  Consider this summary:

"Reagan was a onetime union leader who extolled the virtues of collective bargaining. As governor of California, he championed environmental legislation and signed a bill making it easier to get an abortion. The only U.S. president to divorce, he incensed the Christian right by nominating a socially moderate judge, the future swing vote Sandra Day O’Connor, to serve on the Supreme Court. He cut sweeping deals with liberal legislators like Tip O’Neill, the Democratic speaker of the House. He signed a major overhaul of the U.S. immigration system that ultimately granted amnesty to some 3 million undocumented immigrants."

The last item alone would kill his chances.

Reagan, of course, understood postmodern symbolism in politics.  His campaign organization employed Lee Atwater who masterminded outreach to Southern racists by kicking off Reagan's 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi.   But Reagan also understood, unlike the current crop of Republican politicians, that it is one thing to win elections with the votes of reactionaries, but another thing entirely to govern as a reactionary, or more aptly, not govern at all.

Time: Why the Tea Party Forgives Reagan’s Sins

Establishment "firewall" will hand the Crown Prince John Ellis the 2016 GOP nomination

Tomorrow, my (neocon) Prince will come.

South Carolina is the state South Carolinian Wilbur Cash had in mind when he developed the idea of "Southern deference" in his classic work "Mind of the South."  All men must submit to God, and each man must submit to his socio-economic "betters." Only once, in 2012, have South Carolina Republican primary voters refused to defer to the GOP establishment's choice for them, and that was likely due to Mitt Romney's Mormanism, if one could successfully poll for honest results.  No self-respecting South Carolinian who has any sense of "honor" would admit to rebuking Romney because of his religion, and the false culture of graciousness makes knowing what's actually in the mind of the average Southerner sort of like trying to figure out the sexual history of a closeted Clemson frat boy.

Romney was an "outlier," though, and it is no great wonder that the coupon clipping and unearned income classes have relied on South Carolina in each presidential election since the emergence of the primary system to reliably promote their choice to victory in the party's nomination, and 2016 is shaping up to conform to a Southern's sense of historical determinism. White South Carolinians will rejoin at a chance to confirm another member of America's current pseudo-royal family. Just as neocon Senate Grand Dame Lindsey Graham will coast to victory over a multitude of tea party upstart challengers in a never closely contested primary, the latest Palmetto Poll shows the Crown Prince John Ellis Bush beating his closest Establishment alternative (Chris Christie) by a margin in excess of 2 to 1.  Bush has 22 percent to Christie's 10 percent, and everyone else is in single digits.

One word of note:  Mike Huckabee (who will not run) was not included in this poll.

Way off their spin game

If you believe the man who wrote this letter to the editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel really is a "lifelong Democrat" you would believe anything.  Anything like:

"If the Republicans have any hope of retaking the White House in 2016, they are going to have to rally around a real candidate...Jeb Bush is that candidate."

More bad news for Rove and his Crown Prince: campaign managers favor Paul

When you get outside of the rich donor bubble, JEB! 2016 is far from a sure thing, it seems. POLITICO conducted an "unscientific" poll of 25 Republican campaign managers, strategists, and aides, and found out something that ought to cause Karl Rove to have another on-air meltdown at FOX.  They preferred Rand Paul over JEB!, and other Establishment-tolerable candidates like Paul Ryan or Scott Walker.   Operatives mentioned Paul more than any other prospective candidate, and JEB! was well back in the second tier.

This doesn't mean Paul has any real chance to win the nomination, but it's more bad press against the credible idea of JEB! 2016.

Can Rove and the Establishment save Cochran?

If you believe Karl Rove, his "Crossroads" PAC is not going to waste any more money on creaky Thad Cochran in his runoff with tea party challenger Chris McDaniel.  One thing, though, about Karl Rove: if his lips are moving he's probably lying.  Expect the GOP Establishment to drop the kitchen sink on McDaniel in the next three weeks.   Covertly perhaps, and as clandestinely as Rove's operation against McCain in South Carolina in 2000, the murky dirty tricksters will attempt to all but put McDaniel in bed with a dead (or near dead) woman, or a live boy between now and June 24.  Putting him in Cochran's ailing wife's nursing home bedroom may be exactly what they would like to do, but even that may not be enough to stop him.

An upset of hoary Establishment pork and bailout bagman Cochran would put the immigrant-unfriendly and potential neo-con (as in neo-confederate)

"Heritage, not Hate" (at least when not wearing a hood)

McDaniel in the US Senate, and be such a supreme embarrassment for Rove and the Bush faction of the GOP in the run-up to JEB! 2016 that it cannot be allowed to happen.  Rove and Co. recently pronounced it will "crush" the tea party, and all but proclaimed the unruly base had been tamed during a series of "victories" by Rove-approved candidates in primaries leading up to the Mississippi senate race.

A win for McDaniel over Cochran would be at least equal to the downing of either Bennett or Lugar, probably worse actually for the GOP Chamber of Commerce establishment, and further evidence of an ongoing, succeeding rebellion against the former wedge-baiters by their fed-up baited snipe.

MJ: Neo-Confederate Ally Chris McDaniel Moves One Step Closer to Winning Mississippi's Senate Race

SPLC: Neo-Confederate Movement

US News opinion: The Tea Party Will Win One in Mississippi

Among family and fatcats, "This man can lead!"

Strike up another win for pompously ridiculous spin mongering.  While most of the stories about the Crown Prince over the weekend were about his "common" and core problem with off-the-reservation tin foil hatters Atwater and Rove spent a generation bringing into the GOP voting base, JEB! was busy doing what he does best: headlining a private high-dollar fundraiser, this time for his cousin, Colorado State Treasurer Walker Stapleton. According to the Colorado Statesman, JEB! got "strong encouragement to throw his [own] hat into the ring [with the tin foils] for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination" from the well-heeled audience.

Cousins, but not kissing

There was a pro footballer from the Broncos there, babbling ludicrous praise for him at an after-game interview level of incoherence. "The optimism, the clarity of message and principle - it fires me up," said former safety John Lynch, introducing JEB! to the enraptured crowd.  Then he dropped his best rhetorical hammer, "This man can lead."

When JEB! got to the podium, he said, "I'm here because family matters," and did reveal how he will perhaps deal with the toxic political legacy of his brother should he run.  When comparing the Clinton and George W. Bush libraries, JEB! said, "...when you go to the Clinton Library, it's all 'me, me, me," "I, I, I," [no "happy little" acrylic world leaders on canvas though]...whether Clinton was a good president or not, is not really the point here," Bush flatly began, then offered a personalized non sequitur answer.  "The point is, I love my brother's humility [bad self-indulgent art and all]; I love the fact that he will let history be the judge of his success and failures [as if he had any choice], and my guess, history's going to be really, really kind to him.

Kinder perhaps in a few millennia than voters, outside of such fawning donor bubble audiences, will be to JEB! in two years if he plays the "Truman card" when trying to deflect W.