That Matt Taibbi-David Gergen roundtable thing is a gold mine, which excuses the fact that this is our tenth post on it, IMHO. JenJen highlights this part:
Gergen: There’s no question that Sarah Palin has gained more from this as a Republican kingmaker. But I imagine there’s going to be a search for someone else to serve as the bridge-builder I mentioned earlier. To me, the leading possibility, if he can overcome the brand-name problem, is Jeb Bush. Two years ago, you would have said, “Impossible.” Today, quite possible. He’s a much more viable candidate today than he was two years ago, and he’s one of the few people I know who could bridge the various factions within the party and hold people together. So I’m putting my money on Jeb Bush as a potential star who might emerge and unite the party.
Taibbi: Whew. I was already depressed this morning, but thinking about another Bush as the better-case scenario in an either/or political future makes me want to douse myself with kerosene and jump into a blast furnace.
“My money as a potential star”? What the hell does that even mean? Presumably he’s trying to say Jeb is a likely nominee, but he’s too dickless to come out and say it.
I try not to play the out-of-touch-elites-not-getting-Real-Murika card, but there are certain things that cry out for this. One is that the Village has never been able to grasp how much the public hated George W. Bush. Around mid-2004, I decided that my hatred of him was pathological and that I should just not talk about it with people. In 2007, my opinion of Bush was exactly the same, but I was regularly telling people (many of whom had voted for him at least once) “he’s not quite as bad as you say”. And it wasn’t that I hated Bush less, it was that they hated Bush more.
People really, really hate George W. Bush. It showed up in poll after poll and it shows up in everyday conversation. It’s just a fact, and it blows my mind that David Gergen is so completely oblivious to it.
Admittedly, it’s still possible that the crazification factor could be enough to carry Jeb to the nomination (though I doubt it, since the crazies will go for Palin). But to put him forward as a viable, “bridge-building” general election candidate is insanity.
I feel similarly about Haley Barbour. The press may love him, but America is not going to make Boss Hog president.
arguingwithsignposts
yeah, Haley Barbour has as much chance of being president as I do. And if he were ever to get elected, I’d move to Canada – or somewhere.
Buck
Jeb Bush.
We live in such freakin’ crazy times.
dr. bloor
Sure, but your reasoning is invalidated because Taibbi said “fuck” during that interview. Jeb Bush might be a baby-raping arsonist who cheats girl scouts out of their cookie money, but a radical leftist journalist doesn’t like him and said “fuck” while expressing that opinion, which makes Jebbie a lock for the nomination. That’s how most of America elects politicians these days, isn’t it?
JGabriel
I think, for the next two years, as progressives, we need to talk up the reasonableness and mainstreamness of our great American patriot, Sarah Palin, and how she would be a conservative we could live with.
If we can get Republicans to believe Palin could win (Even the liberal DougJ says he would vote for Palin instead of that extremist Obama!) then she could much more easily win the primary, and we’d have easy target in the general.
.
Biscuits
Why not? At this point I think anything is possible. Sigh.
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel:
I think we need to make it clear to the Republicans that Sarah Palin is the only governor running for president in 2012 who hasn’t pardoned rapists and murderers, like Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty and who isn’t a Massachusetts flip-flopper like Mitt Romney.
Ross Hershberger
Michigan has an open primary. I would not have to be registered as a Republican to vote for Palin for the GOP nominee.
Dare me.
c u n d gulag
I think Jeb’s a legit RepuliConfederate candidate in ’12.
They’re out there whitewashing Little Boots’ record right now, though there’s not enough white on the planet to do it.
And if you look at “The Whore of Babblin’ On” and the rest of the dwarves sorrounding her, who do you think the kleptocratic puppetmasters will decide may be the best choice? They’ll claim that Jeb is more like Daddy than W. And with FOX and talk radio behind him, and with the MSM trying to seem non-liberal, does anyone think that they can’t sell Jeb to the conservative and even independent voters? Propaganda works.
Never underestimate the absolute stupidity and idiocy of the Amercian public.
MikeJ
@dr. bloor: Has anybody on earth ever actually complained about Taibbi’s language? I know his fanbois love to start every discussion with “you just don’t like hearing the word fuck”, but honestly, I’ve never, ever heard anybody complain about it.
Valdivia
Totally OT but I accidentally read the NY Daily News this am & they had a huge piece on Palin being in Haiti on some sort of goodwill mission. Can someone explain this one to me?
Wile E. Quixote
@DougJ
It’s annoying that the Democrats aren’t tying every single thing the Republicans do to George W. Bush. Bush’s face should have been in every single ad the Democrats ran in 2010. The Republicans did this to Clinton, so it’s only fair. And Clinton, unlike Bush, wasn’t a total fuckup who drove the country into a ditch.
DougJ
@Ross Hershberger:
Do it! I would.
BruceFromOhio
Eh. The teatards won’t accept him, and Dems got an easy target with the name.
I’ll take your money, Gergen, because you’re stupid, and that’s what happens to stupid people with money.
WereBear
The greatest indictment of Democratic stupidity and incompetence is that with such opponents with such records, they still aren’t able to win sometimes.
Redshift
It’s similar to how they’re endlessly taken in by Newt Gingrich’s “maybe-I’ll-run” game. Newt was the last person before Bush who the Democrats successfully used as a target to run a nationalized Congressional campaign, and he wasn’t even president! Yeah, memories fade, but no one outside of the crazies and the Village thinks Newt has “matured” into an intellectual and elder statesman; he’s still the asshole who shut down Social Security checks out of pique and criticized the president’s morals while doing much worse himself.
If you can easily put together a clip reel of news stories about a person resigning in disgrace, that person is not going to be president.
cleek
he’s not oblivious to it:
W is part of “the brand-name problem” that Jeb has to overcome (along with the “dynasty” issue)
alwhite
I sort of assumed the “Miss Me Yet?” bullshit was aimed at making Boy Blunder palatable so that they could run Jeb (who I believe from my time in FLA is dumber and more vapid than his drunken brother).
To believe Jeb would be able to garner the nomination you would have to think very little of the intelligence of the American public. You would have to assume there was a large number of memory impaired morans out there. So, yeah, I think he has a really good chance.
Sko Hayes
Jeb Bush, besides having “that name” attached to him, does not have the Conservative creds to overcome the hatred that Conservatives have for his brother. Also, according to commenters at Red State (see poll here:
), he dropped the ball on Terri Schiavo, so therefore he’s a “wuss”.
That poll over there is a little frightening, as are the comments (look at the poll numbers for John Thune versus John Bolton, yikes!).
Chris Christie is mentioned (the right does love their bullies), until one commenter chimes in: “The worst part of Christie is that he is an environmentalist…”
Yee gods.
Sko Hayes
Sorry, forgot to add the link to Red State (I know, but you guys have to see this poll!)
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/12/10/the-2012-brackets/
Napoleon
@Sko Hayes:
I disagree – He is far far more conservative then his brother and not nearly as stupid/lazy. He was the dangerous one if he got elected instead of Dubya, as hard as that is to believe.
El Cid
Actual elites really are out of touch with Real America.
But only if you use sane definitions of “elites” — i.e., the very very rich and the very rich and the hacks and punditariat who worship them and see their interests and perspectives as basic realities. I.e., not giving a shit what happens to Social Security for retirees in the future, because, anyway, they won’t need it that much and they’re tired of Americans being such lazy leeches anyway who need to remember how to fend for themselves and be responsible about spending.
Rather than some deceitful, right wing cultural (Nixonian too) paranoid notion that “elites” is any Starbucks employee who thinks NASCAR isn’t the best sport evah.
And if you use sane definitions of “Real America,” meaning how life is for the vast majority, especially its true middle and working and lower income populations, and what they face.
Rather than defining Real America as ideally being any right wing white rural Southern or Western crank who thinks libruls and their gay marriage and Big Gubmit are ruining everything and about to take all their guns away.
ChrisS
Jeb would win the primaries. Only a Bush could admit cocaine use and get a pass from the social conservatives and only a Bush is going to be able to bring a hispanic first lady to a GOP white house. The media would love him and they could sell ketchup popsicles to republican voters in white gloves.
The snowbilly isn’t going to run. She’s going to flirt with the idea while the checks roll in right up until she absolutely, positively, has to make a decision.
JPL
Jeb doesn’t own a ranch and his wife was born in Mexico City. I assume she received her U.S citizenship after they married.
GA has an open primary system and I just can’t imagine voting for Sarah.
Cat
Maybe I read to many blogs, but isn’t this a repost?
El Cid
You see, in a sane world, these would be elites, rather than, say, people who arrogantly assert that not accepting evolution as the biological process which resulted in humankind, and who don’t think our kids should learn ‘both sides’.
Instead, they are our heroes of the economy who are also geese who lay golden eggs, which for some reason we’re supposed to think they share with us.
You know, those Adam Smithian principles of Capitalism which holds that trades and pricing and financial marketing should take place in secret where no investors or outsiders know how to value the goods trades. The Invisible Hand, presumably, every know and then needs to be not just invisible, but completely undetectable.
Of course, thinking that this self-interested cadre of the super-rich plans major activities to shape the nation’s future to their advantage is any ruling class activity is pure fringe class warfare conspiracy theory.
henqiguai
@Valdivia (#10):
If you’re really, really interested, you can try the Huffin’ Glue story…
dr. bloor
@Valdivia:
She was down there encouraging the Haitians to follow Alaska’s lead, and to reject any assistance or subsidies from the Gummint during their reconstruction. Also, too, to tell them how to survive these hard times and feed their family by shooting moose from helicopters.
shortstop
@Ross Hershberger: Feel free, but be sure you don’t want to run for office down the road. Choosing GOP primary ballots has later compromised more than one aspiring Democratic politician’s chances here in Illinois (which also has open primaries).
eemom
OT, but I have to say it. Dana Milbank is the biggest fattest asshole ever to asshole his way to the top of an All-Star Asshole array of op-ed asshole columnists.
SUCH an asshole is Dana Milbank, that someday his assholeness will consume him, and he will become ALL asshole. Then, some modern day Gogol might write a story about him. It will be called “The Asshole.”
sherifffruitfly
2012 will be a referendum on whether or not white folks (the primary group that votes overwhelmingly republican) acknowledge their poor decision on the last go-round, or whether (more likely) they continue to vote for the anti-Very-Scary-Brown-People (hispanics, Muslims, Obama) platform.
dr. bloor
@MikeJ:
Dunno. I was using the meme metaphorically, as I imagine most of the people ready to pull their levers for Jeb have never even heard of Taibbi or paid any attention to anyone to the left of Richard Cohen. If Gergen’s underwear could talk, however, it might be a different story.
Valdivia
@ henqiguai–my curiosity doesn’t get to the point of giving that rag the clicks. I imagine there were adoring throngs following her around amirite?
@dr. Bloor–exactly my thoughts. This is the example the Haitians want to hear from, really? Did her people just think It was the only way to get her in a picture with dark people?
shortstop
@eemom: That was magnificent.
Buck
@henqiguai:
From that Huff link:
My tongue just unsnapped it’s roller.
El Cid
@eemom: Me on Milbank’s perfectly insane logic and anti-empirical argumentationatiousness.
shortstop
@dr. bloor:
1. Alaska is the biggest federal welfare state in the union. Just when I think I can no longer be shocked by her fucking gall!
2. Why did this story not have a Suddenly Last Summer ending? Because orange foundation tastes so nasty?
Xecky Gilchrist
@alwhite: I sort of assumed the “Miss Me Yet?” bullshit was aimed at making Boy Blunder palatable so that they could run Jeb
That’s certainly plausible. It hadn’t occurred to me, though, because I didn’t imagine the proponents could think that far ahead. I assumed it was all about tearing Obama down through any means necessary, whether it made any sense or not.
WyldPirate
@eemom:
Shorter eemom: Milbank =black hole of assholishness
David
I think the Republicans only hope for a viable candidate would be some unknown, Know-Nothing billionaire whom the Joe-the-Bootlickers can rally ’round because “billionaires understand bidness.” It has to be someone who won’t do interviews and whose company is private.
Anya
@Valdivia: This is a media photo-op for snowbilly grifter and Franklin Graham is furthering his uber-right wing, christian agenda. He is following a long, proud and lucrative tradition for these poverty pimps to use black people to further their greedy causes and raise more money from their gullible flock.
GregB
Relax Balloon-Baggers, everything is OK now because Harold Ford just told me that government is working again.
Now we can stop worrying about politics and get back to our McRibs and X-Box.
Davis X. Machina
Always take the stupid. It may not always win, but the stupid always covers the spread.
sparky
well, depends on the definition of insanity.* personally, i think it would be more insane to put you-know-who at the top of the ticket. the Rs, however, have rewired themselves so that the only thing that matters is power.** i think pretty much anything would go, so long as it had a chance of capturing the ring again.
all of that said, it’s not going to happen, but not because of the “Bush” name. Jeb cannot afford any further scrutiny of his deals with the markets during his time as governor. it’s close to an open secret in florida that he screwed the state via Wall St.
*it is not difficult to argue that the entire US establishment is literally insane. it’s not as if insane people promoting insane ideas is something new.
**DeLay may be gone, but the changes he and his people wrought in the party’s understanding of itself seem permanent.
henqiguai
@Valdivia (#32):
No clue; I don’t read anything about the bimbo, I just saw the headline while scrolling through to see if they had anything actually worth reading.
I see at #34 Buck has a comment after reading the article. I would also note that the picture headlining the article showed a bunch of whites around her; hard to do if you’re in Haiti, unless you’re surrounded by a large entourage to shield you from the natives.
Menzies
@WyldPirate:
SUPERMASSIVE black hole of assholishness.
@David:
In other words, Rick Snyder?
dr. bloor
@Davis X. Machina:
If Cole ever lets us have tag lines, I am so stealing this.
jrg
I think you’re over-estimating Americans. Many of them are stupid as shit. I mean, for God’s sake – we just elected a REPUBLICAN house because of deficit concerns.
I’m 35. I’ve never seen a Republican balance the budget. Yet people are dumb enough to believe they will, despite years of evidence.
People are morons. By 2012, Dubya will have a positive approval rating again, because 60+ percent of Americans will think that Obama invaded Iraq. Hell, they already think he got TARP passed.
Sko Hayes
@Napoleon:
While Jeb Bush may be the smarter brother, that doesn’t necessarily translate into votes from the right wing.
Listen to one of Palin’s fan’s “strategery”:
Palin should dictate policy approved by Redstate to the Congress and threaten to run if they don’t listen to her. LOL, maybe I’m taking these folks too seriously.
Brachiator
How does any supposed hatred of George Bush translate into a hatred of the entire House of Bush?
And when you have dumbass baseball players buying into the lie that the President of the United States is a elitist foreigner who only cares about the shiftless and the unworthy, then you really have to consider whether the
terroristsRepublicans have won.But even here, it’s pointless to speculate too hard on who is going to emerge as the eventual GOP nominee. It seems so long ago that the smart money was convinced that the 2008 presidential election would be a titanic struggle between Rudy 911 and Hillary “The Inevitable” Clinton.
BGinCHI
You mean THIS David Gergen??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDA9NbPAK8o
Davis X. Machina
@dr. bloor: 30 years of high school teaching, dude. My optimism — such of it as decade with the Jesuits, reading Augustine on the fundamental depravity of mankind left intact, that is — lasted about as long as A Flock of Seagulls.
Kirk Spencer
The most likely Republican nominee is Sarah Palin. I present a simple test which has traditionally identified The Next (for several decades now).
Long term media popularity. This is a lot easier now that Google is around, so you can try it too. Search the candidates and variation of “presidential candidate” (or candidate for president) in the two years after the election. Sarah Palin overwhelms all others in 2009 and 2010. fwiw, George Bush overwhelmed the rest in 1997 and 1998. McCain, Huckabee, and Romney were surprisingly close in 2005 and 2006, but McCain was still the leader in the count. Yes, Bob Dole was the man in 1993-1994.
Now, Palin could decide not to run, or she could self-destruct or quit or something could leave the closet or muck. But right now she’s the leader for the Republican nomination in my book for the simple fact that in the end it’s a popularity test and she’s the most popular person to the Republicans.
Tom M
Anybody but Palin will win as the Republican nominee in 2012 because the economy will still suck and unemployment will exceed 7%. This is a good discussion.
Conclusion: So, about the best hope is that the Republicans will nominate Palin and that she will prove too much for the American electorate to swallow. Maybe this overreach might even cost them control of Congress. Or maybe some totally unexpected event will turn things around. And, while I’m at it, there’s a nice patch of grass at the back of the house where the pony can graze.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sko Hayes #18:
Probably thinking of Chris Christie Todd Whitman.
Honus
Somebody pitched Haley Barbour as the republican nominee to me the other day. “He’s been a successful governor, and he has experience. He could be dangerous” The joke of a fat insider Mississippi governor versus Obama is so evident you have to have complete Villager myopia to even consider it. Barbour is sort of a less interesting Palin in a Barbara Bush costume. Not gonna elucidate any starbursts in the wingnut base, no black or hispanic or young voter appeal. Old white males might win a midterm congressional election, but the won’t make the nut in general, and Barbour has zero appeal outside the beltway/Cheney crowd.
rikyrah
that was a hilarious interview. Matt’s brutality in the interview was a breath of fresh air.
I’ve said it before…..if Familia Bush decide that it’s time for Jeb to run for 2012, Caribou Barbie will meet a chainsaw like no other.
forked tongue
I’m rooting for Bush myself. Neil Bush.
BGinCHI
@eemom: Subtle, but true.
sublime33
One of the most infuriating things about the Bush era was that while it was perfectly acceptable to bash Bill Clinton in any work or social setting when he was president, it was rude and un-American to criticize George W. Bush in any way shape or form. Because we were at war and all of that. For some strange reason, the rules changed back around January 20, 2009. Now it is perfectly acceptable once again to bash the president in any and all social and work circumstances.
BGinCHI
@Davis X. Machina: I saw them open for The Go Gos.
shortstop
@SiubhanDuinne: Didn’t think of that! No doubt that’s it!
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Have you been able to get the product out of your hair yet, or do you think it’ll take another decade or so?
Davis X. Machina
@Kirk Spencer: Not so fast, says Johnathan Bernstein.
If you’re not reading A Plain Blog About Politics, you should be. Some people think very hard about this stuff for a living, and the closest they get to the op-ed page of the Times is doing the kitty litter, more’s the pity.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: I think I still have some cans of mousse somewhere.
Fond memories of Belinda Carlyle, though.
Ross Hershberger
Noted above: “barring unforeseen circumstances”. That’s a big if. 24 months is a long time. A lot can happen and many possibilities would shift the electorate’s preferences. War, further economic decline, terrorist attacks. The choices from this point in time look uncertain and they’ll be affected more by ongoing events than by the relative status of the candidates as of 10/2010.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
Krugman says we are so screwed:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/the-doom-of-broder/
BGinCHI
Speaking of Dana Milbank, here’s Krugman’s takedown of stupid Dana’s stupid column:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/orwellian-centrism/
jon
It has now been 78 years since the Republicans last won a Presidential election without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket. That is why.
BGinCHI
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle: Broder is like George Costanza, but without the self-awareness.
Ross Hershberger
Milbank is a singularity of stupid from which no intelligent thought can escape. Crushed by the immense tidal forces of concentrated ignorance, thoughts are irreversibly torn apart into their component particles and lost forever.
robertdsc-PowerBook
They did. People didn’t listen. I read a tidbit about focus grouping of the Dems message and how folks didn’t want to hear about Bush and that linking to Bush gave negative responses.
shortstop
@robertdsc-PowerBook: The first person to tell me,”You’ve got to move on; Obama owns it all now!” was speaking on or about February 1, 2009.
Buck
@henqiguai:
Nothing more than just a cursory scan, I assure you. Low pain threshold and all that.
ant
I’ve been curious to see the expressions on everybody’s faces when Matt says, “fuck the business community”, so I looked to find the video for this round table.
I cannot seem to find it.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Stellar.
Rommie
Hrm, it’s getting time to size up some Mayan attire. Anyone know a good website on their designs before I annoy the Great Gazoogle?
Bernard
Haley Barbour is a white male, and as such would/could be sold like all the rest of the GOPers, Huckabee, Jeb. don’t underestimate the stupidity of the Southern white vote.
the Southern white vote would eagerly support Haley.
as long as it’s Haley vs. “socialism”, Southern Whites will sell their remaining food stock rather than have one of them “ferners,” gays,immigrants, women, muslims and other “UnAmericans”. Just look at America today and see how “bad” America is. the Southern whites are helping to “take America back!”
the depth of the stupidity and the constant re-enforcing of the Us vs. Them mentality has sold America to the Corporations. Why think? vote Republican!!
And Jeb could be re habilitated in no time.
This will be a ride to the very bottom of the very bottom.
America! land of the zombies
Keith G
I see Richard Holbrooke is hospitalized due a “life-threatening” tear in his aorta.
I don’t always agree with his analysis, but I enjoy hearing his discussion of the issues.
,
Hawes
@jon:
Wow. That’s amazing…
Jeff
@dr. bloor: What makes this even funnier is that during his last campaign for Governor , the Bush campaign had oodles and oodles of signs printed “JEB!” on them– then someone pointed out that “Jeb” means “fuck” in Polish.
may be apocryphal.
shortstop
@jon: Can’t they run Julie or Tricia, then? Campaigning might give Julie a larger forum for her perpetual explanations that Dad’s racist and Jew-baiting comments on tape after tape after tape are being “taken out of context.”
Hawes
First, on Taibbi. While I enjoy his writing, I think you would not need to douse yourself in kerosene, if you’re next step was jumping in a blast furnace. I realize he lives on rhetorical overkill, but still.
The fascinating thing about handicapping the GOP field is that you can’t have a favorite until you have a field.
GOP primaries are winner take all. McCain won the nomination by being palatable to about 35-40% of primary voters and winning all the delegates.
If Palin can consistently win that percentage (and polls suggest she can) and the establishment throws out Bush Jr. Jr. and Barbour and Thune and Pence and Daniels to try and create an “anyone but Palin” phenomenon, then I think she wins.
I think the most dangerous GOP candidate might be Huckabee, especially if we’re still at 8%+ unemployment. He’s the only cracker who can talk populism and have it not sound like one of the those dogs than barks and it sounds sort of like words, but not really.
BGinCHI
@Hawes: I’d prefer it if he’d said that he was going to give Gergen a big hug and drag him into the blast furnace.
Not sure Gergen is flammable though.
JenJen
I’m relieved that you share my feelings about Haley “Boss Hogg” Barbour. Nah gonna happen.
@jon:
Damn! That is a pretty shocking stat, and it’s a real blow for the concept of American political creativity and ingenuity, isn’t it?
Taylor
And who do you think made sure that Ms Palin resigned midway through her gubarnatorial term, and doubtless told her they’d lower the boom all the way if she dared to get in the way of the Anointed One?
Follow the money.
Davis X. Machina
My WAG is that the ultimate nominee will be someone we’re not talking about now, or talking much about now. A YouTube world favors the person with the least history to comb for gaffes.
This quateron aren’t long on originality, and some of them, looking at Obama, will think “We need a hope-change-new-face-dark-horse thing — just not from Alaska”. I’ll be an interesting process, to see what happens when the “It’s his/her turn” forces in the GOP run into the “Gotta win, now” forces.
arguingwithsignposts
@ant:
been thinking the same. I would love to see video of Gergen’s pursed lips.
arguingwithsignposts
@Taylor: DougJ, stop trolling your own thread!
shortstop
@Hawes:
Some (I believe most) are. Some are WTA within a district. Some are proportional as ours are. The GOP leaves that choice to the states.
But some of the earliest ones on the schedule are likely to favor Palin, so you’re right that a plausible path to her nomination exists through the WTA aspects of the GOP primary system.
priscianus jr
JenJen
@DougJ: You know, in 2000, a bunch of my friends registered Republican in the Ohio Primary just to vote for John McCain, in an effort to stop Bush.
I just couldn’t do it. I would’ve felt a little dirty, even. But Palin? I’m open to persuasive arguments. :-)
Tractarian
To be fair, Jeb would make a much better president than W. or Palin.
El Tiburon
At this point I would say Jeb Bush has a good a shot as anyone else.
I don’t have the link, but there is a poll out saying Obama would lose to Romney.
Of curse this means Obama is going to tack even harder to the right. If that is even possible.
Ross Hershberger
Michigan has a long history of voters crossing party lines in primaries to ensure a weak challenger to an incumbent.
Mike in NC
Imagine the ads they could run against him:
“Haley Barbour wants to do for all of America what he did for the state of Mississippi!”
He’s a slightly older, slightly fatter, and dumber version of Gingrich, but without the pretense of being a right-wing intellectual.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
By 2012, Jeb Bush will have been out of office for six years and as far as I know, he’s a rarity on the green room circuit. Whether or not that works in his favor, I’m not entirely sure.
Jewish Steel
@DougJ:
This is naive. The american people aren’t preventing Haley Barbour from winning. It’s them Duke boys.
And that bumbling sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane. Dag nabbit.
Davis X. Machina
@The Sheriff’s A Ni-: YouTube favors the (recently) invisible….
WyldPirate
@Hawes:
I think Pence is dangerous. He is like Huckabee but not doused in as much offensive Jeebus aura. Stupid, but dangerous. Christie, too, if he wasn’t a fat tub of lard.
This campaign coming up could be like 1984 and ’96. People like to talk shit about how low the ratings were for Reagan and Clinton at the mid-point of their first terms, but look who the hell each of them ran against. Fritz Mondale and Bob Dole, for FSM’s sake.
Obama’s fate is in the hands of the economy now, IMO and to a lesser extent, his opponent. If the economy is as bad in the summer of ’12 as it is now, all bets are off. anyone could win. If it improves to say 8.0-8.5 unemployment and a whack job wins the Rethug nomination, Obama gets a second term.
ruemara
@Valdivia:
humanitarian photo op to polish her statesmanship credentials. Can’t wait for the behind the scenes where she complains about there being too many minorities in Haiti.
BGinCHI
@WyldPirate: Mitch Daniels. He’s the dark horse, I think. We’ll see if he runs. My guess is he’ll wait till ’16
jwb
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle: I’m not biting until Bill Kristol declares that the tax deal marks the beginning of Obama’s recovery. Broder is only mostly wrong all the time; only Kristol has the talent to be wrong with every fucking prediction he makes.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: I thought Mitch Daniels was a strong possibility until someone told me he’s 5’2″.
Also, if you’re just going to eff off on blogs all day, please go over to the Paper Trail on Clark and get me some gift wrap. I don’t want to go out in this. Thanking you in advance.
eemom
@shortstop:
same here with John Thune, until someone told me his name was Thune.
ETA: and same here re suckazoid weather. Miserable. Gonna make eedad go get the Christmas tree and then spend the next 15 hours getting the lights on.
WyldPirate
@BGinCHI:
I’m not very familiar with Mitch Daniels. I’ll have to keep an eye on him, but we don’t hear much about him down here in NC.
shortstop
@eemom: Hee, but seriously. It ain’t fair that Americans haven’t elected a short president since–when? Truman was pretty short, wasn’t he?–but it is the way it is.
Davis X. Machina
@shortstop:
This explains why Doghouse Riley’s #1 blogpost tag is “Midwestern States Governed by Surly Megalomaniacs with Napoleonic Complexes”.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: You mean the 20 fucking dollar gift wrap?
Yeah, I know that place well. Love the cards.
Might make it to Coffee Studio to do some grading, but I’d sure rather eff off on this blog. Glad I don’t have Bears tix.
cleter
@Valdivia: One problem that governors who want to run for president have is a lack of foreign policy experience. So, governors who are running for president often go on random foreign trips before the presidential election season gets up and running, so they can they can name-drop various foreign things and feign some foreign policy cred.
Short answer: She went because she’s running for president.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Is it really $20? That’ll teach me to skip the half-price January sales. It’s uglyass Jewel paper for me!
change
I still see nothing scares liberals quite like Sarah Palin.
She has you shitting your pants at the thought of her running.
shortstop
@change:
Doug’s going through his change. Haw. Who doesn’t love a menopause joke?!
licensed to kill time
The footage I saw of Sarah! in Haiti showed her looking rather apprehensive and adjusting her bangs a lot.
El Cid
@robertdsc-PowerBook:
There is no past. It doesn’t exist. Appealing to peoples’ memory of it is useless.
All problems began with Obama. Before that it was Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank and ACORN and Fannie / Freddie and so on and so forth.
Bush Jr. may have started a war with Iraq which he lied about and didn’t do anything about Katrina, but otherwise not much went on and it’s too far in the past for anyone to remember, so, it’s Obama’s fault.
Yutsano
@change: Oh please Mr change! Kep that skeery Ms Palin from runnin’! We’ll do anything you say just don’t make her run!!
/Br’er Rabbit
(think it’s too subtle?)
ChrisS
@change:
Most liberals welcome her to run. Also a lot don’t think that she would run, the money is too good for her level of responsibility right now.
I wish I could get millions for doing fuck all.
BGinCHI
@change: I’m shitting my pants at the thought of her governing.
Comrade Kevin
Remember all that talk a few years ago from some Republicans about changing the Constitution so that Arnold Schwarzenegger could run for President?
Ross Hershberger
@Yutsano:
I don’t want Palin to run for the GOP, and I don’t think the rich fat guys will allow that. I want her to crave the campaign attention so much that she runs a 3rd party campaign and Naders the GOP from the right.
It might be our best hope.
Ruckus
@ChrisS:
The media would love him and they could sell ketchup popsicles to republican voters in white gloves.
Nice turn of phrase.
Ruckus
@eemom:
How do you really feel?
Calouste
@WyldPirate:
Both Mondale and Dole were VP candidates on a losing ticket, like someone else we know.
Sko Hayes
@change: No, a smart person would scare us, Palin makes us clap our hands in delight.
Personally I’m looking forward to the debates if she does run.
Hunter Gathers
Palin’s going to get the nomination. Period. All this talk of her not having the work ethic or discipline to pull it off is nonsense. Any of the others who run and dare to attack her will be snuffed out by the conservative media. All she has to do to win Iowa is to make a few appearances, hold up Trig, and state (I’m paraphrasing here) “This is the reason you should vote for me. My special needs child, whom I chose not to abort. You know who would have aborted him? That communist nigger in the White House, with his America hating wife.”
That’s all she has to do, and walk away with a win in Iowa. She can skip New Hampshire, and walk away with another win in South Carolina, with the backing of Nikki Haley. After that, she’ll coast to the win. Romney won’t be able to pick enough votes from the evangelicals (they think Mormons are cultists), Pawlenty and Huckabee have Willie Horton type issues, Thune and Daniels have no natural base within the party, and the rest will just pick each other apart while avoiding Palin like the plague. The convention will be one week long primal scream about the infinite wisdom of ‘Real Amurikans’, along with endless speeches dripped in crypto-racist sentiments. It will resemble a Klan rally, only without the hoods.
After that, she can get away with not having press conferences, or even going to the debates, because the press is genuinely scared of her. They desperately want access to her, and the only way they will get it if they agree to her terms, meaning softball questions, soft-focus profiles, and endless generalities about American exceptionalism.
The big money guys will fall in line, as she’ll do their bidding just as easily as any of the others would. The Neo-cons will give her enthusiastic backing, as she is just another blank slate to fill with jingoistic statements about endless war with the Middle East.
It’s hers to lose, which she won’t. And she’ll get her ass handed to her in the general election, which I think even she realizes. But winning doesn’t matter, as with defeat will come with her being anointed as the new right-wing martyr, with permanent access to the right-wing money train. She’s going to be the modern Barry Goldwater, the candidate that wingnut activists hold up as the model of ‘true conservatism’, much like Barry the Racist Fuck from Arizona is these days.
That two months from the conventions to the GE are going to be most insane time period of modern politics. Get ready for the ride of your life.
one two seven
Hunter Gathers matches my gut feelings pretty much exactly. The only quibble is that I think she may cause a rift in the big money faction, who will find her a step too far. But they won’t be enough to stop a rabid GOP primary electorate.
To those who think she won’t bother to run, you and I do not have the same type of attention whoring ego that she does and don’t understand how that works.
mclaren
Why hasn’t Gergen come out for Cheney yet? Dick Cheney has a lot to offer. He could bridge a lot of the factions that divide the Republican party, plus he’s made a pact with Satan, so you’ve got that going for him as well.
25thcenturygirl
@Hunter Gathers: Why do you believe the press is genuinely scared of Palin? I know so many of them are lazy, incompetent ass kissers who want to be bed warmers for the hedge funders of the world, but I wanted to know your reasons for this belief.
SadOldVet
The reasons why Jeb Bush will be elected as the next president of the United States in 2012:
1) Jeb is an original signer of the PNAC statement of principles and can be relied upon by the military-industrial complex to do more wars
2) Jeb is admired by the social conservatives as ‘saying’ all the right things to give them a ‘chill up their legs’
3) Jeb is part of the Bush Crime Family and can be counted upon by the corporate and wealthy wing of the republican party to increase the disparity between the wealthy and the middle class
4) Citizens United Not Timid vs FEC