The tea party's "common" problem

Michelle Malkin once tweeted to her tea party followers, "When it comes to Common Core peddlers like @JebBush et al: Don't read their lips. Follow the money."

"It's been a huge financial and political jackpot for Bush," Malkin later said in an interview. "Advocating for purported high standards takes him across the country and puts him in touch with a lot of deep pockets. But, of course, he didn't anticipate this backlash. Does he still come out ahead by fronting for Common Core?"

Yes, Michelle he does come out ahead, where it counts. Wonder what she will tweet to her

followers if Jeb decides to accept her party's nomination? Probably something like, "Jeb may be a crook and a crony, but he's our crook and crony."

Tampa Bay Times: Jeb Bush's Common Core problem strikes at heart of his foundation

Mark Levin: Jeb Bush The ‘Dumbest Of The Bushes’

The Nation asks the right question, and provides an answer

The most recent issue of The Nation features an article that asks the question, "Will Jeb Bush Follow in His Brother's Footsteps on Foreign Policy?"  It answers the question by citing a RightWeb article exposing JEB! for the neocon he is.  According to the source:

Feels Good!

"...Bush 'rarely comments on foreign policy,' it is noted that Bush 'has appeared particularly unwilling to push back against the neoconservatives who supported his brother’s administration, at times echoing their complaints about the Obama administration’s foreign policy.' They add that Bush, who often focuses on Latin America, has apparently called for increased US aid to anti-government forces in Venezuela. And RightWeb adds more about Jeb Bush’s affiliation with PNAC [Project for the New American Century]:

Although not well known for his views on foreign affairs, Jeb Bush has been a supporter of hawkish factions in the United States, including the neoconservative PNAC. In 1997, just before his successful run for governor, Bush was one of more than two dozen prominent political figures to sign PNAC’s founding statement of principles...Among PNAC’s 25 charter signatories were several people who would become senior members of President George W. Bush’s administration, including Dick Cheney,Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, I. Lewis Libby, Zalmay Khalilzad, Peter Rodman,Paula Dobriansky, and Elliott Abrams."

Project for the New Iranian Night Sky?

For those "constitutional conservatives" hoping to avoid having to fall in line and vote for another neocon, or stay home, The Nation has this prediction:

"Given the united front against the Tea Party by the Republican establishment, Karl Rove’s Crossroads and the US Chamber of Commerce, the GOP winner in 2016 is likely to be an establishment-leaning candidate..."

If not JEB!, then who for the GOP?

Clearly Jeb Bush cannot win the presidency.  For the Republican Party to nominate him would be nothing short of committing an act of deliberate electoral suicide.  He is being promoted by the media, and some well-heeled, self-serving donors and party leaders because he is party royalty (a safe choice for the speculator class and coupon clippers, goes the assumption, even if he loses). The other alteratives to JEB! being heavily promoted by the media (Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and until recently Chris Christie) are all now as equally unelectable as Bush.  Though Paul does poll better than JEB! against Hillary, he and Cruz are both unacceptable to the party establishment as a standard bearer.

So, does the GOP literally have no one who could be competitive with Hillary Clinton on a national level?  They probably do have competitive candidates, most likely a governor somewhere, but none are being promoted, or seriously discussed at this point.   Who might be a viable alternative to a Jeb Bush gotterdammerung?

The most obvious one, if he wins reelection this year, is John Kaisch.

He is a reasonably popular governor of a crucial swing state (Ohio) who isn't well known (meaning he isn't already perceived by the public as a typical reactionary nitwit), isn't an extremist, and is someone who likely would come across as reasonably intelligent and non-threatening as a presidential candidate. Kaisch would probably put Ohio at least into play if he were the nominee, and might even force Clinton to defend Michigan.

Kaisch does have some downsides.  He was associated with Wall Street speculation during W.'s administration, and, like JEB!, worked for Lehman Brothers (as managing director of the Columbus, Ohio regional office, not in New York) just prior to the investment bank's collapse.  He also had some history, as governor, of attacking public employee unions, but he took a less extreme and less confrontational position on unions than the more prominent (and less nationally electable) Scott Walker.

If Republicans can avoid another brush with the Bushes, and nominate someone like Kaisch, they may, or may not, beat Hillary, but they can probably avoid a historic, generational catastrophe.

Would Hershel Walker do a commercial for JEB!?

Raise your hand for JEB! in 2016?

Hershel Walker found great success and fame on the football field, some short success as a mixed martial artist, and now he is quite successful as a motivational speaker. He also ought to consider modeling, given his rather impressive debut in ESPN's 2010 "Body Issue."   Mr. Walker has found time lately to endorse one Jack Kingston, a Republican running for US Senate in Georgia.  JEB! and Marco Rubio are also endorsing Kingston in his run-off bid against David Perdue.  Ironically Perdue (a corporate fat cat cousin to former GOP Georgia governor Sonny Perdue) has consistently polled better than Kingston against Democrat Michelle Nunn.

Walker's ads are financed by the U.S. (not Georgia) Chamber of Commerce, so given the polling paradox, and that JEB! is endorsing Kingston also, you have to conclude that there is something about Perdue that makes the right wing segment of the national plutocracy worry he might be too "independent" as a Senator, even though he is sort of one of them.  "Independent" like maybe George Soros, or Warren Buffet.

Also, it might be important to know, should Kingston not be able to win in November, that Michelle Nunn, the alternative, is the former director of George H. W. Bush's Points of Light foundation, and reports "good relations" with the Bush family.  Don't expect her to spend much time with Elizabeth Warren if she makes it to the Senate as a "Democrat."

Wash Post: Football great Herschel Walker joins the ranks of Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio

Hillary still destroys the Crown Prince John Ellis by historic landslide margins

Get back in your ranks, teabaggers!

Karl Rove must be burning some midnight oil next to his drawing board now that clear evidence is in showing that his latest slash and burn strategy has failed miserably. Likewise, just as friendly, Rove-baited media sources have ramped up the JEB! 2016 drumbeat (JEB! is sort of smart, unlike his brother), the latest Zogby national poll should give them serious pause. Despite inherently JEB!-friendly media like Forbes spinning the results with nonsense like "Jeb holds Hillary under 50 percent," the reality is that Hillary would absolutely demolish JEB! by a margin of 17 points (the exact same margin she beats Rand Paul), 49 percent to 32 percent, with 14 percent saying, outright, they would vote for "someone else."  Paul actually polls beater than JEB!, with 34 percent support, and only ten percent chose "someone else" when he is the alternative to Hillary.

When respondents to a poll, even though they are not given a specific option, say by double digit margins they would vote for "someone else" that ought to give the Republican plutocrats something to think about when contemplating how hard to force JEB! down the throats of their tea party.  Even a flake like Jesse Ventura could probably siphon off enough votes to hold JEB! at, or below, Barry Goldwater levels in a matchup with the Clintons.

Newsweek asks the wrong question, and doesn't give a good answer.

The Bushes have made the cover of the latest issue of Newsweek, featuring a caricature of Poppy, W., and JEB! as players in a Game of Thrones presidential drama, and a piece entitled "Can Jeb Bush Win the Presidency?"  The answer given is:

"Jeb would need to face the ultraconservatives, the Clinton dynasty and the vicissitudes of luck."

Left out was that JEB! also would need to face the sorry presidential legacy of his family's prior occupants of the Oval Office, but the correct answer to the question asked is simpler and shorter: no. But that is the right answer to the wrong question. The question Newsweek should have asked, in an otherwise laudatory puff piece about JEB!, the Bush family and how it compares (favorably) to the Kennedys and Adamses in American's pseudo-royal lineage, is "Can Jeb Buy or Steal the White House?"  The answer to that question is: probably not, when you factor in the poisonous record of his brother, and that Hillary is perfectly acceptable to much of America's plutocracy.

Newsweek has undergone some rough times of late. After massive losses, its then owners in 2013 turned it into an "online only" ueber-blog, alongside The Daily Beast.  Later in 2013, the Newsweek brand and the online version (but not the Daily Beast) were sold again, and it has reemerged as a print mag in 2014.  If you believe Mother Jones, it's now nebulously owned, through a front media company, by an obscure right-wing and homophobic Korean-born sect leader who bears a potential parallel to Sun Moon.  Moon's Unification Church now owns DC's Republican, right wing newspaper, the Washington Times. Whether there is a pattern working here, or not, this might go a long way to explaining why Newsweek is the latest media outlet to boost JEB! as the potential 2016 savior of the GOP.

Another important question Newsweek should have asked is, "Can Jeb Buy the Republican Nomination?" The answer there is: yes.

Will Jeb seek to buy the Republican nomination?  He has promised his Wall Street and neocon donors, now holding their powder and money dry, he will let them know before the end of this year.

America awaits its fate.

Mother Jones: Who's Behind Newsweek?

The Guardian: Faith and a media icon: Newsweek's unconventional new owners

Moonies, Messiahs and Media: Who Really Owns Newsweek?

Gawker: The New Owner of Newsweek Believes Homosexuality Can Be Cured

JEB! the "wonk" is becoming the punchline to a national joke.

Rove is completely off his game now that eight years of Toto-reality from 2001 to 2009 pulled back the curtain on his "king-making" judgment and abilities.  His recent efforts to remake the lazy (if yet intelligible) "old school tie" brand of genial stooge for cronyism and elitism that is Jeb Bush into some serious policy wonk and intellectual with baited PR released through friendly media contacts has all but bombed out on the "Peoria" circuit.  No one with with a brain who pays the least bit of attention to politics, world affairs and history will buy Jeb Bush as an "intellectual." Smarter than his wastrel brother yes, (which is not that much of an accomplishment), but not much more than that.

The "punditocracy" is having a lot of sarcastic fun with this desperate Rovian ploy:

"Jeb Bush has a dirty little secret that he wants to tell, and he doesn’t even care who knows: He’s a “geek”! A nerd. He’s so silly like that, caring about policy all the time when all everyone else wants to do in life is have a good time.

Such is the message passed off in a weekend New York Times riff on the former Florida governor. It may be the most comically obvious attempt we’ve seen yet in the 2016 proto-campaign from Jeb’s handlers to show that he’s not an idiot like his elder brother, the former President Bush. The piece is filled with effusive quotes about how bookish and wonky and smart Jeb Bush is. Rarely is an image-crafting piece so indiscreetly dropped by a politician’s handlers. Hell, a reading list is even provided to run alongside the profile to offer even more proof that, yes, the rumors are true, Jeb Bush is literate. And the pace in which he devours middlebrow histories and libertarian at-length ranking and Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing ____” books is breathtaking."

And then there is:

[New York] "Times reporter Michael Barbaro (5/24/14) explains that Bush is "bookish," a "voracious reader" and "self-described nerd" who "flew in Ivy League social scientists for daylong seminars with his staff."  ...Indeed, Times readers are told that during his tenure, "the Florida governor's office at times resembled a mini-university." ...Barbaro notes that these days, "Bush peppers his speeches with statistics, academic-sounding references to 'quintiles' and self-deprecating jokes about his own geekiness."...The Times includes a sidebar consisting of  "a selection of what he has read or is now reading." On the list? Bill O'Reilly's latest, Killing Jesus...It's what all the nerds and wonks are reading."

Dumb and Dumber?

Those promoting JEB! for president are doing so because they think (probably correctly) that he will be a non-threatening, pliable, semi-articulate front man for their plutocratic control of the national government and its policies.  Selling JEB! to those less critical voters who have no control will be exponentially harder than peddling his inarticulate brother's "everyman" you-want-to-have-a-beer-with scam. JEB! won't be running against a wooden wonk himself, an opponent like Al Gore. The very idea of packaging JEB! as a right wing version of Al Gore illustrates the desperate dead end position the GOP finds itself in as it again prepares to do battle with the far more resourceful and charismatic Clintons.   As one pundit, putting aside the snark for a moment of actual intellectual prescience, noted:

"...Jeb Bush does not need to worry about proving his intellectual bona fides to the more pressing audience, the GOP presidential primary electorate. There’s plenty about George W. Bush’s legacy that they don’t like, but none of it has to do with the popular perception of him as a moron. These are not discerning customers, in that regard. What they do remember negatively about George W. Bush’s presidency, and have worked hard to eradicate from their ranks ever since, is his big-government [neo] conservatism. In this respect, George and Jeb are nearly identical."

Jeb Bush Is a Wonk–Just Ask Him

Jeb Bush’s humiliating plea: I swear I’m smart

Jeb Bush Claims He's More Bookish Than His Brother. Karl Rove Begs To Differ.

Queen Mitch is running scared

Mitch McConnell, the GOP's number one bag lady in the Senate for crony capitalism and

plutocracy, is doing what no safe incumbent ever does.   He wants to debate his challenger, the annoying and "uppity" woman that is daring to challenge his life-sinecure.  Three times! McConnell is pleading with Alison Lundergan Grimes to appear in what he calls three "Lincoln-Douglas" debates with him.   The Senate's current "Little Giant" for oligarchic reaction should rethink that offer in our post Seventeenth Amendment era.

Mitch has a history of ruthless, effective campaign operations that would rival any Bush for mendacity and negativity, yet this offer reveals a serious lack of confidence by McConnell that he can beat Grimes using his old playbook alone.

An incumbent never offers to debate a challenger if they can avoid it.  The mere appearance of a challenger on the same platform with an incumbent is a great equalizer, imputing to the challenger a measure of legitimacy they could not otherwise obtain on their own. Before this desperate offer, the smart money would have been on Mitch grinding out another scorched-earth win over Grimes. Mitch should be careful what he now wishes for.  Grimes is smart and increasingly pointed, feisty, and articulate on the stump, and smart enough to bait bitter, old Mitch into a "Lazio" moment on a debate stage.

Mitch McConnell Challenges Alison Lundergan Grimes To Three Debates

Republicans fast sinking in "deep" over JEB!

Apparently Karl Rove can say, with his characteristic straight poker face of political sociopathy, that Jeb Bush is "the deepest thinker on our side." In a party full of Birthers, believers in "legitimate" rape, and climate science deniers, such an accomplishment arguably would be a low bar to meet, but if Jeb is the best thinker they got, God help them.   The Establishment media seem more than willing to buy this latest swindle Rove is peddling. According to the New York Times, JEB! is:

"A voracious reader, [who] maintains a queue of 25 volumes on his Kindle (George Gilder’s 'Knowledge and Power' among them, he said) and routinely sends fan mail to his favorite authors....A self-described nerd, he is known to travel with policy journals and send all-hours inquiries to think tanks...Friends and former aides have variously described him as a “policy wonk,” an “ideas junkie” and, as Arthur C. Brooks, the president of the American Enterprise Institute, called him, “a top-drawer intellect.” 

Anyone want to take a chance that JEB! 
really is a serious thinker?

After eight years of definitive proof otherwise, it may seem hard to remember that Rove packaged this nobel laureate poseur's older brother in 2000 as a popular bi-partisan governor whose "compassionate" conservatism was nothing more than the old centrist moderation, who desired to forge cross-party coalitions on major issues, and who, most importantly, sought a "humble" role for the United States in world affairs.

Does the "weimarization" of England portent a US party crackup?

The US and England (Britain) have represented over the modern era from the 18th century the two shining examples of "first past the post" representative democracy, while the rest of the Western world has largely embraced a proportional representation form of parliamentary democracy. Two strong parties, defined constituencies, and political stability has characterized Britain and the US.

That paradigm may be coming to an end.  Evidence suggests it already has in England. After the recent election victories by the English "tea party" cognate UKIP in local elections, England is now an effective four party state with unwieldy parliamentary coalitions looming for the foreseeable future.

Could the same thing be coming to the US, or perhaps has it already in a stealth way?  The so-called "tea party" caucus paralyzes Congress into complete inaction, where there are now essentially three, perhaps four, blocks of ideological factions.

The GOP establishment has bested its upstart populist creation, not by "crushing" it as corporate and "Junker" bag lady, Mitch McConnell (missing only a monocle and red lipstick), said, but rather by nervously co-opting its nihilistic rhetoric.  But when they serve up JEB!, their version of Franz von Papen, who if you believe the right wing comment blogosphere, is universally loathed by the far right, will there be a crack up of the Establishment right?  Millions sitting home, or a third option to siphon off 10-20 percent of the vote?

America seems logically to be headed for at least four parties:

An economically and militarily neoconservative (meaning pro-plutocracy and cartel economics and pro-imperial foreign policy) and socially moderate party (country club republicans and DLC democrats),

a neoliberal (as in Rand Paul) anti--plutocracy, anti-imperial, and libertarian party,

a Social Democratic Party (democrats),

and a neo-fascist (petty bourgeois populist, nativist, pro-imperial, and socially reactionary) party.

Are our Politics becoming "Weimarized"?

The Weimarization of the American Working Class

Jargon Watch: Weimarization

Fugitive Philosophy: Weimarization

A "formidable' delusion

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad praised JEB! after he remotely (from Florida) hosted a re-election fundraiser for him, stating the Bush Crown Prince would make "formidable candidate" if he ran for president in 2016.  If Branstad means that JEB! would have a lock on the nomination if he runs, he speaks the truth.  If he meant JEB! would be a "formidable candidate" in a general election, then he needs to check himself into the nearest mental hospital instead of seeking another term as Iowa's governor.

On the road for money

The Crown Prince John Ellis is beating the Bushes for money, and plans to show up with Reince Priebus, the whiter (and more incompetent) successor to Michael Steele as GOP Chairman, at an RNC fundraiser in Cincinnati on June 16.  Rand Paul sold out the May 16 Hamilton County, OH Lincoln-Reagan Day dinner.  You can bet the JEB! event will "sell out" too with a far richer, and smaller audience of fat cats who, nonetheless, really matter.

The United States of Pyschodrama

The Bush family has made the cover story on the current edition of Politico magazine.  Oh Brother: The pyschodrama of George v. Jeb outlines the sordid story of how a country, the United States, has over the last twenty years become a family counseling clinic for the wastrel sons of George H.W. Bush. Countries, however, do not exist for the purpose of serving as the mechanism for two immature brothers to solve their personal issues, so the prescription is no more Bush presidents, and the clinic discharge date should be today.  Otherwise the clinic will have to shut down due to structural failure.

JEB! 2016: No child left unprofitable

This little piece in the Washington Post is a good primer for understanding the dystopian world of for-profit standardized rote indoctrination for the masses that JEB! intends to take national if he can:

WaPo: Jeb Bush bashes traditional public schools (again)

A thousand points of reminder

They say a picture is a worth a thousand words.  You can bet if JEB! runs, this picture and thousands more like it will be shown many thousands of times:

JEB!: anything but "confident and interesting"

The Washington Post's resident neocon apologist, Jennifer Rubin, is in full "gush mode" over the prospect of JEB! 2016.  In her latest column, The confident and interesting Jeb Bush, she is almost worshipful at the feet of the Bush Prince who offers a full neocon restoration if the imperial purple can be purchased for him.  Here is an example of her most baroque tripe:

"Bush is a wonk almost in a class by himself — citing Friedrich Hayek, the “broken windows” theory and the state pension crisis foretold by Steve Malanga — an indication that he reads, thinks about the big issues and then (as governor and now an education reformer) tries to apply them."

Conflating a sense of elitist entitlement with self-confidence, and artful confidence gaming with intellectual substance is understandable for a neocon with a hidden agenda, but for everyone else it is mistaking the hubris of a trust-funder with the self-confidence someone born a nobody possesses or acquires that enables them to become self-made and somebody, something totally alien to JEB!'s generation of Bushes.

If JEB! ever quoted or dropped a Friedrich Hayek reference, it was for completely self-serving reasons. Hayek would be as big a crackpot to a Bush as any Tea Partier  or Paulite would be.

More neocon booster tripe: Why is Jeb Bush gaining momentum?

JEB!: Is he 'in'?

According to The Moderate Voice, the Crown Prince John Ellis' recent donor smoozing activity, and most especially his wedge-baiting commencement address at a college in Pennsylvania portend the very good likelihood of JEB! 2016.  In short, he is probably "in."

The article acknowledges that if he is "in," he better be ready to be "in for it:"

"...what is likely to come [is]: a bruising fight within his own party where his brother’s failures and unpopularity will be chained around his neck like an anchor, and an instant collection of Bush foes in and out of the party who cringe at the thought of a third Bush in the White House."

Politcal blogger Martin Longman lays out the stark dynastic advantage Hillary will have in comparison to JEB!:

"...Bill Clinton is Hillary's greatest asset and there is simply no denying it. If we can point out some downsides to their relationship, it all pales in comparison to Bill's ability to compare his presidency to the two Bushs' presidencies. His record may be flawed, but it trounces the records of the most recent Republicans presidents. The connections the Clintons have, the experience, and the good will they enjoy with a wide swath of non-Obama voters all add up to a massive advantage over any Democratic alternatives, and certainly over any prospective Republican candidates not named Jeb. And, frankly, Jeb is not only saddled with the records of his father and brother, but also lacks the same kind of cross-over appeal with non-Romney or non-McCain voters."

This coming from a guy who says:

"...I am not even a fan of the former president [Bill Clinton]. I still resent him for his personal failings, his policy shortcomings, and some of his behavior during the 2008 primaries. But I'm not an idiot. [when it comes to knowing who would win a Hillary-JEB! matchup.]"

Rove as Captain Smith on the bridge of GOP "Titanic"

The coming collision now shaping up between the forces of reaction and those of progression is well explained in the Atlantic article, "Why Democrats Are Aching to Run Against Jeb Bush." If you believe they are, then Rove's recent efforts to intimidate Hillary out of the race seem all the more pathetic and desperate.

Given the probably correct assumption that Republicans will romp over Democrats later this year in what will be a very low turnout midterm election, the idea that Democrats will in turn romp over Jeb Bush in 2016 might seem ridiculous to anyone who was in a coma from 2000 to 2009, but obvious to everyone else.

Republicans can never succeed in framing the 2016 election as a referendum on Obama by nominating Jeb Bush.  As the article correctly explains:

"[in a recent speech] Clinton noted that “Canadian middle-class incomes are now higher than in the United States. They are working fewer hours for more pay than Americans are, enjoying a stronger safety net, living longer on average, and facing less income inequality.” How long until Republicans accuse her of considering the United States inferior to our northern neighbor?

But the most important takeaway from Hillary’s speech was that she’s aching to run against Jeb Bush. Clinton is not a great inspirational speaker. She’s at her best arguing a case. And the most effective part of her speech Friday was her case for why [Bill] Clinton-administration policies—an expanded earned-income tax credit, a higher minimum wage, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program—helped poor and middle-class Americans get ahead, while the Bush administration policies that followed—tax breaks for the rich, unfunded wars—made their struggles harder.

If Republicans are smart, they’ll do everything in their power to avoid this debate."

The truth of the proposition that Bill Clinton's economic policies ultimately helped middle class Americans (remember he signed the Republican-written Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that handed the financial system over to predatory speculators) is clearly debatable, but JEB! 2016 will never rebut the other side of Hillary's implied argument:   George W. Bush's administration was far worse.

The Republican element of the donor plutocracy, far from trying to steer clear of such a disaster, seems to be charting a course straight at it.  This coming election is shaping up to be a titanic and transparent clash between the "progressive" plutocracy of George Soros and Silicon Valley, exemplified by Clinton, and the "reactionary" plutocracy of the Kochs, Adelson, etc. perfectly exemplified in the figure of a Bush crown prince.

Clinton will be able, facing another Bush, to frame the election as a choice between Bill Clinton era illusory prosperity, and George W. Bush's crackup of the speculator bubble, not a choice between Obama and the libertarian rhetoric about free markets, small government, faith in a Calvinist "self help" God, etc. - any of the false talking points the GOP establishment always trot out to defend their unvarnished system of cartel economics and oligarchy.

It is a rhetorical, if not substantive, battle the reactionaries will lose.

JEB! and the "empty suit" effect

One the best quotable lines about any Bush presidential candidate ever was written by Brendan Nyhan, and recently appeared in his New York Time's article, "Jeb and the G.O.P: An Awkward Match."  The awkward part is debatable, but his characterization of JEB! is not:

"In reality, though, all politicians are inauthentic; some are just forced to be more obvious about it than others. In this sense, Mr. Bush’s changing positions on immigration shouldn’t be seen as a character flaw but the price of his ambition."

JEB! "on verge" of deciding to run, says donor

According to Mel Sembler, a major Jewish Republican fundraiser close to JEB!, “It looks to me like he’s well along to making the decision later this year that he’s going to run.”  The Tampa Bay Times points to his conspicuously busy schedule that increasingly resembles a pre-campaign, with informal outreach to donors and intimate talks with key religious leaders (the latter an absolute necessity for another presidential Bush con game).  

Like his brother, George W., JEB! is going to dishonestly position himself as both a champion of right wing religion and a "moderate."  Why the plutocracy thinks he could be competitive by retreading W.'s triangulated route is beyond belief. Either the speculator class has lost complete touch with reality, or they are so filled with hubris they intend to have their JEB! or no one. Tom McInerney, a Wall Street investor and GOP donor who saw Bush in New York, blathered the talking point tripe that will have the whole country snickering next year. “He’s not extreme. He’s thoughtful, he’s intelligent. He’s electable, and most of the others are not.” Only a Wall Streeter hoping to put another Bush over on the country for their own material benefit could say those words without busting out laughing. If American voters buy such nonsense, they deserve the damnation they will get after the war with Iran, the massive additional tax cuts for financial speculators, and the multi-trillion dollar annual deficits the Bush family will blame on Obama bankrupt the country.  

Hopefully enough voters have enough sense to disappoint Mr. McInerney.

The Green Dream

Years ago, a fellow named Norman Spinrad wrote a science fiction novel set in an alternative universe where Adolf Hitler had immigrated to the United States after World War I, and become a comic book level illustrator for pulp magazines in the 1920s (think Weird Tales and Amazing Stories), and later a pulp science fiction writer himself.  In this book, Hitler wrote "Lord of the Swastikas" (a not so thinly veiled parody of both Robert E. Howard and J.R.R. Tolkien's leitmotifs) and won the Hugo Award (like the Nobel Prize for hack science fiction) for his efforts. In our universe, Spinrad won the Hugo for that book.

Spinrad is still around, and God help us, so is the Bush family, still meddling in national politics. Spinrad's book was supposed to be a satire of the American reactionary mind, and how much of what passed for science fiction and fantasy writing allegedly appealed to crypto-fascist dystopian impulses. One thing not addressed directly by Spinrad was how fascism itself was a sort of reactionary modernism, and how Nazism sprang from a misty, romantic German Voelkisch dreamscape of naturmensch and Lebensreform.

Now, in  our time, we have our own American Voelkisch movement full of survivalist doomsday preppers, creation scientists, and climate change deniers going up against their leftist dopplegangers of carbon creditors and eco-utopians.

In another alternative universe somewhere along the space-time continuum, there is a warming world where Karl Rove's Hillary bashing will sort of work, and she bows out of the 2016 presidential race, choosing instead a lessor glass ceiling to shatter.   Into the gaping political void, just as the West Antarctic ice sheet starts to slide off into the ocean and begin it's long liquifying journey towards Florida's coastal cities, will come none other than Albert Gore, Jr., bellowing mountebank of the eco-left, back from the political dead after making a fortune during the period his electoral adversary drove the country into the abyss, and now having free rein in his secure late middle age to seek a cosmic and poetic vindication against the man who stole a sinking Florida from him a near-generation ago.  He's actually younger than Hillary, and no less, or more, of a crook than JEB!.  In this world, Al picks Hillary, taking her lessor grandmotherly path, to be his running mate, and JEB! gets his, and his family's, ultimate humiliation. Even when compared to a con artist like Al Gore, another Bush can't put their own con over on the country again.  The last Bush Crown Prince cosmically and poetically thrashed by earth-toned Al, and a woman.

If only it was coming to a real universe near yours.

IPCC reports 'diluted' under 'political pressure' from Saudi-led coalition to protect fossil fuel interests

Priebus lacks "Steele"

Immediately after Barack Obama was elected the first US President with known African ancestry, the Republican Party thought it politically opportune to appoint as its chairman an African-American, Michael Steele.

Under Steele's leadership, the Republican Party seemed to overcome the disastrous baggage of the incompetent George W. Bush legacy administration, and scored a historic mid-term win in 2010, not only reversing a Democratic supermajority in Congress to take control of the House, but the party made huge gains at the state level.  Steele was then replaced after one term as chairman with Reince Priebus, whose clueless and bumbling leadership has left the party elites dangerously close to losing control to the reactionary rabble they have courted at the ballot box for two generations, and now Priebus and Rove are positioning their party for electoral suicide in two years.  Can they even manage to snatch some sort of defeat from what should be a historically favorable midterm climate this year? Recently Priebus was rewarded for his leadership with a second term as chairman.

Was Steele just a token "black" face whose usefulness was not what he could do as leader, but simply to serve out a term before being replaced with another white guy who would take orders from Karl Rove and his benefactor political family?  When are you dealing with a political party that sees its future hope for Hispanic votes lying with George P. Bush, you at least better believe that is possible.

There will be a "token" black face on the podium next to JEB! in the primary debates.  The smart money says it will be Dr. Ben Carson.  The ads are already running on right wing radio, probably funded from the same nebulous plutocrat sources as the cash filtered through Koch, Tea Party, and other independent PACs.  "Paging Dr. Ben Carson...please report to the White House. STAT!"

Not really, but your face is needed on the debate podium. STAT!

Die hard conservatives, the same ones who are the target of Rove's latest disinformation campaign, will loudly denounce the idea that Carson is a "token," and the right wing blogosphere is already abuzz with countless "grassroots" outlets proclaiming him as a legitimate option for the Republican nomination.  Sadly, none of it is true.

Carson, like Alan Keyes and Herman Cain before him, would not win a single caucus or primary, despite all of this "grassroots" support.  And that is the way the GOP wants it.

The real irony in Rove's comments

Karl Rove's curious concern for the presidential fitness of Hillary Clinton's brain long after a garden variety concussion due to a slip and fall is funny considering his own role as the ongoing surrogate "brain" for the inherently "brainless" and pretzel-stumbling George W. Bush. It destroys any effectiveness his extremely parsed line of attack might have.  He better step up his game, or he will be put out to pasture with the rest of the family that employs him.

Fox News Pundits Lash Out At Karl Rove Over Hillary Remarks: ‘You’re Generating Sympathy For Her’

Bookmakers are getting it wrong for the GOP

A look at William Hill’s United Kingdom-based betting website shows the current co-leaders in a potential GOP primary are Christie and Rubio at 9-to-2 odds. (If you can legally wager $2 you would win $9.) Jeb Bush trails slightly at 10-to-1. Perry is a 100-to-1 long shot.

Overall, Clinton is the heavy favorite to win the 2016 White House at 5-to-4 odds.

Las Vegas Review Journal: It’s never too early to handicap a presidential race

Cut and paste platitudes belie JEB!'s future presidential intentions

JEB! may have given what amounts to his first true presidential campaign speech as he honed a tired and phony "family values" line of attack in a paid-commencement speech at Grove City College in Pennsylvania.  It was a profane and trivial effort when compared to another, and timeless, speech given long ago in Pennsylvania by the first Republican president.  Forgettable lines included:

"...remain true to your convictions and your faith."

"This may seem a little challenging today, where we have a federal government that is willingly violating the religious freedom of its citizens...But we don’t have to accept it."

"If you feel inspired to serve your fellow citizens, don’t let the ugliness of politics keep you from pursuing public office [I won't]," he added. "There is always room for informed, engaged, passionate leaders at every level of government. [too bad I don't offer any of that]."

For some reason, JEB!'s man, Rove, didn't get the message about the ugliness of politics.

Newsmax: Jeb Bush Points to 2016 in Pa. Commencement Address

Tampa Bay Times: Jeb Bush, looking more seriously like a 2016 contender, hits the road

What is exactly is "fair game" in 2016?

Reince Priebus, whose incompetent leadership of the Republican Party has occurring during the period when the party leadership has been noisily and sloppily challenged by the Promethean Tea Party monster they created, now pathetically defends has-been Karl Rove's latest dirty tricks disinformation campaign.  He probably has no other choice, from his perspective.

Of course any presidential candidate's actual health is a legitimate issue in a campaign, but when Priebus says Hillary's "health" and Benghazi are "fair game," that's not what he means.  If he is right, then the lead up to the Iraq War by George W. Bush and the prospect of another Bush-led war with Iran, JEB!'s tenure with Lehman Brothers after 2006 and its impact on Florida and the world's economy, Neil Bush's contractor cronyism with Ignite! Learning in relation to promoting Common Core standards, the Schiavo affair, JEB!'s wife and her run-in with US Customs, JEB!'s children's personal problems, etc. are all "fair game."

Unfortunately all of this muck will be "fair game" in what promises to be the dirtiest presidential campaign, at least since 1884, if not ever.

"Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?  Gone to the White House.  Ha! Ha! Ha!"

"JEB!, JEB!, where's Benghazi? Closer to Baghdad than the White House is to you! Hil! Hil! Hil!

You have to give Rove credit for realizing that JEB! can't beat Hillary if she runs, and he realizes that taking her out of the race is his only option to install a third Bush, but he won't be able to take down the Hildabeast with BB shots about phantom brain damage, or Benghazi, or any old scandal from the '90s.  She and Bill will relish charging like a Rhino in heat against the next Bush and his "brain."

Rove's "premature ejeculation" strategy will prove disastrous for the Republican Party in 2016. They will have already shot their disinformation load into Hillary, and by the time the actual campaign starts after JEB! buys the nomination, all the attention will be on his shortcomings.

Her campaign slogan might as well be "Hilldog '16.  It takes a beast to beat the Bushes!"

Yes, JEB! is gonna play the "faith" card

You knew it would happen, but with a twist.  JEB! 2016 of course will be about love for the exploitation of undocumented workers and Common Core cronyism, but it will also be about "faith and family," big shock.  Jeb chose, what else, a small Christian college in Pennsylvania to deliver his only commencement speech this year, urging his captive audience to remain true to their convictions and faith.  Not ironically, this same college's incoming president is a former deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, and a professor there, Paul Kengor, is the author of "God and George W. Bush."

Call it the "triangulation of all triangulations," but trying to sell Common Core for Neil Bush and other cronies, guest workers for the Chamber of Commerce, and "family values" to the far right in 2016 might turn out to be like trying to lead a camel through the eye of a needle.

According to the Washington Post, JEB! was paid through the Washington Speakers Bureau to spread the faith at the college.  Both the school and a Bush advisor refused to disclose the amount.

Benghazi 24/7 won't elect JEB!

At least it won't according to a Fox News poll.  Can't you just imagine the farcical scene at an idealized JEB!-Hilldog debate.  JEB! walks over to Hilldog, and points his finger at her in his best Rick Lazio imitation and bellows, "Benghazi!"  Hillary smirks and retorts, "yellowcake, bro" as the audience erupts.

Why JEB! might not run for president

British tabloid The Daily Mail lays out the whole sordid story.  What it calls reasons 1, 2, and 3. If he doesn't run, maybe the Bushes could star in a reality show, a la The Osbournes, and let Jesse Ventura introduce each episode.

Seriously, those who do not favor a third Bush presidency should refrain from tabloid attacks on Bush's family.  Let Rove and JEB!'s surrogates use such tactics on their opponents, for they certainly will. There are a thousand and one reasons why JEB! should never set foot in the White House except as a guest, and the personal problems of his family referenced in the Daily Mail article need not be dredged up to prevent a Jeb Bush presidency.

JEB!'s great Freudian slip

The Crown Prince John Ellis Bush has gone on record saying he would govern like a former Texas president.  Lyndon Johnson.  So not only should Americans expect simply Bush league mediocrity, they should expect the neocon war to end America's ability to wage further disastrous, misguided wars. Bullseye Iran!  Hey, hey J-E-B:  how many countries did you and your family destroy to-day!

And Jesse Ventura would make three

Jesse Ventura weighed in on the possibility of a Hilldog-JEB! matchup in 2016.  He compared a society that would let such a thing happen to the dystopian society depicted in the movie "The Running Man," where Ventura starred as a competitor with Ahnold Schwarzenegger in a futuristic (for 1987) postmodern gladiatorial game show hosted by none other than Richard Dawson.  "We're living in a world where 'The Running Man' could become a reality TV show in my lifetime," said the former pro wrestler and politician turned reality TV show host.  He then added, "Stop voting for Democrats and Republicans."  Could that be his way of saying he might make it a threesome with Hilldog and JEB!?  Wonder how the "Obama generation" raised on "The Hunger Games" would react to that?

"Hardball" probably gets one right (for a change)

Chris Matthews, America's most determined suck-up to power (the same one who voted for both George W. Bush and Obama) suggested yesterday on Hardball that Karl Rove and the GOP are going after Hillary so hard now in an effort (however vain) to bludgeon and batter her up so their eventual offering, Jeb Bush, might seem acceptable by comparison.  Good luck with that.

Karl Rove is seriously off his game in his old, desperate age, trying to turn obvious sh*t into Shinola.  He has always been effective only when operating in the shadows, like a good fat, cowardly sycophant would be.  Running the dirty tricks as a whisper campaign, taught his nasty trade by Nixon's indomitable "ratf*cker" himself, Donald Segretti.

It worked with Segretti against Muskie.  It worked against McCain in South Carolina.  It worked against Dan Rather.  Now that Rove's pudgy face is, well, the actual face of all this stuff,  he reveals himself as a fool.  He will have about as much success selling JEB! 2016 to the country as JC Penney and Sears do with their disheveled half off racks these days.  As much as they might hate doing it, the voters will head to Walmart and get Hillary's everyday low priced made in China politics.

Karl Rove’s unhealthy political tactics

This Is Exactly How Karl Rove Works

Was Dan Rather right about George W. Bush?

If JEB! doesn't run in 2016, will he throw support behind Rubio?

What is really going on with JEB! and Marco Rubio?  Rubio's recent public comments and activities seem to indicate he is back to promoting himself as a presidential candidate, but JEB!'s current patterns of behavior also indicate he is positioning himself to run.  What is really up? Rubio likely will not run if JEB! does, so is there some sort of 'gentlemen's agreement" between the two as both test the political waters?  JEB! is finding plenty of support among the donor and party hack elites, but little support among the grass roots, and he has abysmal ratings for a run among the public at large.  JEB! will likely run if he thinks there is any chance he can buy or steal the office (winning it in a fair election seems unlikely), but will he demur if he, Rove, and other Bush retainers view the presidency as unattainable by any means necessary?  Rubio will certainly run, win or lose, if Bush does not, and as Rubio has long been considered a protege of JEB!, will he expect support from him, or has he already secretly been given that support if JEB! 2016 never occurs?

One thing to consider is how a run and loss by Rubio, or more importantly, a run and win by Rubio, would effect the future presidential plans of George P. Bush, who if Rubio does not become the nominee, could position himself as the "Hispanic" nominee of "first impression" circa 2024 or '28, and be in a position to emulate Obama's ethnic identity campaign of 2008.

The smart money say JEB! would publicly endorse Rubio if he does not run, and secretly, through Rove and others, try to torpedo Rubio for the benefit of George P. later on.

Now Condi has publicly endorsed JEB! 2016

They keep falling in line. Condoleezza Rice, one of the chief apologists of George W. Bush's neocon foreign policy, and an architect of his Iraq War strategy, has come out publicly in favor of JEB! 2016.

Her two cents worth:  "Jeb hasn't said whether he will run, he's a friend, I hope he does, frankly." She also added she will be looking for "somebody who understands the importance...of immigration reform."

Maybe she also wants in on the run up to, and planning of, Operation Iranian Freedom?

Christie all but throws in towel on run himself if JEB! 2016 happens

Chris Christie admitted on his monthly radio show Tuesday that running against JEB! would not be an easy thing for him to do.

Asked if it would be fun or stressful to battle the former Florida governor and Bush Crown Prince, Christie explained that he is a close friend of the Bush family. He helped raise money for George W. Bush's presidential victory in 2000, and then Bush appointed Christie the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey a year later.

"It’d be stressful because I consider Jeb a friend,” Christie said. "And he’s been a wonderful friend to me, especially during Sandy and the aftermath. You like to run against people that you don’t like, not run against people that you do like and respect."

Christie might as well paraphrase Marlene Dietrich: "Falling in Line Again, never wanted to, but what am I to do? I can't help it.  Donors cluster to him like moths around a flame..."

What does Rove's recent Hillary trash talk have to do with JEB! 2016?

Karl Rove was likely being the ever faithful Bush family retainer when he recently insinuated about Hillary Clinton's alleged brain damage.   Consider that ramping up the personal attacks against her is likely a ploy to achieve one of two unlikely results.  Either drive her out of the race (which is wishful thinking on the part of Rove and the GOP), or an attempt to force her to enter the race prematurely (as in prior to JEB!) in order for her to get out in front of these attacks.  She will not take the bait. However her "shadow" campaign organization and operatives try to get in front of whatever Rove and other Bush surrogates throw at her, she will not give Jeb Bush (or Barbara Bush) the satisfaction of initiating a dynastic showdown.  JEB! will either have to make good on his pledge to fat cat donors to announce (or bow out) later this year, or leave them hanging well into next year, because Hillary won't go first. She doesn't have to.

LA Times: Why Jeb Bush's turn may not come

Does Rubio's recent activity say anything about JEB! 2016?

Most pundits generally consider Marco Rubio won't run in 2016 if JEB! does.  Rubio's recent activity, however, suggests he is revving up a position for a run.  He is trashing talking Hillary on national TV, and he has proposed folding Social Security into the Federal Employees Retirement program. Has he been talking to JEB! or sources close to him, or is he just getting ready if the opportunity arises?

Jeb acts like a candidate while running out the clock

The Crown Prince John Ellis Bush is acting like a presidential pretender for the Bush royal family as he bears down on his promised end of year decision, criss crossing the country speech making and, according to his son, Prince George P., raising money just in case.  Jeb may eventually use family concerns as a rationale for not taking on Hillary Clinton, even if he decides he can't possibly beat her. Hillary will likely force Jeb to make the first move and formally start the dynastic clash, if there is to be one.  He has promised big donors he will announce his intentions before the year is over.  She can wait until next year, and make Dowager Queen Babs' statement about enough Bushes, and more than two families qualified to run for president come back to bite her if Jeb throws in first.

Politico: JEB! 2016: The Bush battle within

Boehner pushing JEB! 2016

John Boehner, chain smoking and spray tanned former bar bouncer turned House go to man for Big Oil, Big Guns, and Big Banks is emerging as JEB! 2016's best cheerleader.  He admits to having "nudged" former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

"Jeb Bush is my friend. I think he'd make a great president. I've nudged him for some time," Boehner told, appropriately, the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Jeb and soap opera politics

The only chatter about JEB! 2016 over the weekend centered around how a 2016 run would impact Jeb's family.  If he decides in the end to bow out and not run, you can probably bet he will fall back on the old "family excuse" rather than an electability one.  In fact, George P. Bush, acting as unofficial spokesman, is on record saying Jeb won't decide whether or not to run based on the odds he could or could not win, buy, or steal the White House in November 2016.

Jeb Bush's 'Act of Love' for Family May Affect 2016 Run

Red Alert Politics gets it right: don't dismiss Jeb Bush for 2016

Read the sorry truth here.  The tea party knows it's time to bend over.

Jeb is now raising money for a run

According to Prince George P. Bush, the soon to be newly-purchased Texas Land Commissioner, and second in line as pretender for the Bush royal family, his father, the Crown Prince John Ellis Bush is now raising money in "key battleground states" for a 2016 run.  Prince George P. acknowledged that his father will not formally announce he is running until later in the year, after he considers "the rigors on family life."  One thing Prince George P. flatly insisted:  the Crown Prince's decision will not be based on his odds of winning the election (which seem slim to none, if you believe the polling).  He then insulted the intelligence of every American voter when he added that his father's decision will be based on whether or not the country needs another Bush's leadership to "turn things around and make our country more competitive."

Hillary's "glass ceiling" won't be the issue in 2016

Early in 2008, before she was overtaken by Obama, the media hyped the idea of Hillary as the first female president breaking a "glass ceiling" for women in politics and formerly male centers of power, a point of no retreat for them.

The metaphor of a "glass ceiling" may very well be useful for 2016, but in a very different way. The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll shows what most all polls have shown.  Hillary shellacks Jeb Bush in a national matchup, in this case 53 to 41 percent.  In all Jeb-Hillary matchups, she consistently gets near or just over 50 percent, and he never gets more than 45 percent.   The Clintons smoke Jeb for favorability even among Hispanics, 79 to 53 percent.

The plutocracy supporting Jeb may not see his "glass jaw" as another presidential Bush, but Jeb has a "glass ceiling" problem he can't bust through: 41-45 percent is probably the best he can possibly hope to get in a national election, against Hillary or any likely opponent.

He won't do better for at least two reasons.  He will never get the nativist hard right (which includes a good deal of the religious right) to fully embrace the new fraudulent "compassionate conservative" image Rove will craft for him, given Jeb's unbridgeable disconnect from them over open borders in the interests of big business, and the right wing paranoia about Common Core. He will manage to get most of them reluctantly show up when Hannity, O'Reilly and the Fox machine frames the election as Jeb or the "Butcher of Benghazi," but not all them will accept that falsely framed Hobson's Choice.

Likewise, there probably will be an element of right wing talk radio, with no financial connection to Fox and Murdoch, who will refuse to reluctantly endorse Jeb, sensing they can get a ratings boost among the disaffected base by not doing it.  Michael Savage (who does have a definite and growing following on the hard right) comes to mind. It also will be very interesting to follow how Mark Levin, currently one of Jeb's most virulent detractors among the "constitutional conservative" right, peddles and triangulates the election if Jeb is his only "alternative."  If Levin (a longtime ally of Hannity) flips wholesale after Jeb buys the nomination, and then tells his flock to vote for Jeb because he isn't so bad after all, he risks losing ratings ground to those talking heads who won't flip, like Savage.

The independent middle will likewise be very skeptical of another Bush "compassion" scam redux. W. as Texas governor in 2000 was packaged in exactly the same way the right wing plutocracy is packaging Jeb: as a "moderate" problem solver who worked across the aisle, and who advocated for a "humble" role for the US in the world.

Whatever most people think of Hillary, most people know, going in, what they will get with her and Bill, warts and all.  In the case of the Bushes, it's a crap shot with a dangerous track record, and most people don't won't to get fooled again by another Bush zonk behind curtain number one, and another avoidable war.

Jeb hits Iowa fundraising circuit "in abstentia" as the prospect of a Hillary-Jeb clash provokes one media gag reflex

Jeb is going where a presidential candidate would go, at least symbolically.   He will be hosting a Florida fundraiser for Iowa governer Terry Branstad's reelection.  Meanwhile a new article in Time leads with this headline:  "A 2016 Bush-Clinton matchup? Gag Me," and calls those hoping for a 2016 presidential race between Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton "benighted fools," and underscores how "uninspiring and backward-looking" such a dynastic showdown would be.

It's "crush time" for the tea party

Just as the Spanish Civil War was a proxy dress rehearsal for World War II blitzkreig, this spring's GOP primaries are a likely harbinger of the looming scorched-earth Establishment campaign against their wayward creation, the tea party.  And, as their toady bag lady for corporate welfare, Mitch McConnell, implied, they intend to bring all their Stuka's and Panzers into the fight to crush the populist calvary charge.

Yesterday's easy victory for Jeb-endorsed Establishment choice Thom Tillis in North Carolina over the Rand Paul-endorsed tea party alternative is just one of a likely long string of coming wins over tea party challengers.  Tillis, who got less than 50 percent of the vote, won the plurality so easily for the same reason Jeb would win the nomination so easily:  the clueless opposition was divided.  Tillis also may have a somewhat embarrassing social Darwinist video floating around the blogosphere where he foments warfare between the disabled and the "lazy" over a few crumbs of federal entitlement "compassion," but he hasn't said a word about vaginas or rape yet, and should be an appropriately disciplined plutocrat reactionary choice against Hagan in November.

In the end, after being put in their place, the vast majority of unruly "tea party" sheep will dutifully fall in behind JEB! 2016, and his circus train of immigrant-friendly, pro-"family values" "compassion," but if just ten percent decide to sit out the election (very plausible), as millions did when Romney bought the nomination in 2012, that should be enough to put Hillary in the White House.

AJC: Is it 'tea party' vs. 'establishment' in GOP Senate primary?

Howard Fineman: Karl Rove Rides Again As North Carolina GOP Senate Candidate Rebuffs Tea Party Challenger

Washington Times: Mitch McConnell on beating tea party: ‘We are going to crush them’

Jeb consolidates hold over GOP

As further proof that Jeb is in a position to take the 2016 GOP nomination if he wants it (why would he though?), the latest CNN poll shows Jeb is at the top of the crowded circus heap, tied with Rand Paul (whom the donors will move heaven and hell to stop) as the party's choice.

Meanwhile Rick Santorum, "very open" to another pointless run, has categorically stated that Rand Paul is "not" the leader of the GOP, and he correctly stated that Rand Paul will not be the nominee (too bad he doesn't have the same grasp of reality when it comes to himself).

GOP sweep in 2014 won't stop rout of JEB! 2016

The latest USAT/Pew midterm poll claims the GOP has the best midterm edge since the 1994 Newt "revolution." Even if Republicans sweep to victory in Congress, the Senate, and at state levels, what would this mean for Jeb in 2016?  Probably nothing.  Jeb will still be another Bush, and Republicans, even with control of both the Senate and the House, won't be able to govern effectively at the national level between 2014 and 2016.  The real problem for Democrats long term is their lack of effective state level operations.  The Democratic Party, as an elite urban-based Progressivist party, has for over a generation ignored grass roots politics at the local level outside of major urban centers, and has paid the price for it in the USA's "first past the post" representative republic.  It is not enough for their smug partisans to say "we win where the people are" when places where the people "aren't" still get to have a say in how things are done.

Hillary outpolls Jeb even in Florida

Rick Scott, the scion of Columbia/HCA medicare fraud and a poster candidate of crony capitalism and government-subsidized corporate entitlement, may be able to do something later this year that Jeb can't in 2016. Win in Florida.

How Hillary can trip Jeb as the starting gun fires.

Fox News, the official propaganda organ of neoconservative Republican plutocracy (and willing to support Hillary against the tea party should it come to that) has an interesting piece about whether Jeb is "orchestrating" a "draft" with some help from his brother W.  No one with respect for intellectual substance cares anything about George W. Bush's opinion of what type of president Jeb would make, but this Fox press release does get to the gist of something relevant about 2016:

"...the former governor of Florida told the former governor of Texas that it was all right to make those remarks [that Jeb would make a great president]. There is no way an experienced politician would make those remarks about his brother without a little private chat.

So why does Jeb want this out there? Because he is, in my view, starting to shape a climate where he can jump in—not to mention countering that comment by their mother that the country has had enough Bushes.

This scenario also reveals exactly how Hillary (and Bill) can render irrelevant any Jeb Bush candidacy at it's outset, and that is by forcing Jeb to "jump in" first.

Dowager Queen Bab's comment about "enough Bushes" has been erroneously viewed by the media as some sort of honest blanket denunciation of another Bush presidency.  Those words were no such thing. The old broad is cagey, and her carefully worded statement, which is more important for its part about there being more than "two families" capable of running the country, was bait for the Clintons: run and Jeb will run, and be justified in doing so.

That defense only works if Hillary enters the race first, and "legitimizes" a dynastic confrontation on Jeb's part, since as Bab's also implied, he is clearly the best qualified [of the two].

Hillary should not take Bab's bait.  She already has the Democratic nomination in hand, and can enter whenever she want, and as late as she wants.  It is the GOP donor class that is in tortured suspense about Jeb, and he has promised them a public decision by the end of this year.

Make Jeb jump in (or bow out) first, and guarantee his campaign never goes anywhere, whichever decision he makes.

PoliticusUSA: Fractured Republicans Working Harder For Hillary 2016 Than Democrats