"The notion that Jeb Bush is going to be the candidate is a fantasy nourished by the kind of people who used to run the Republican Party."

I don't have much use for Ben Smith but he seems right.

Oh -- Jeb Bush is apparently on the board of Mike Bloomberg's Bloomberg Foundation.

No labels, baby.

I've actually met him only once, in a gorgeous breakfast room atop Manhattan’s Bloomberg Tower, in front of a sweeping view of the East River. The breakfast was part of a series with a distinctly Bloombergian vibe: editors rather than reporters, healthy snacks, elite centrism. I asked Jeb there about the Republican Party, whose mantle he's now apparently considering seeking. He didn't need much prodding, either, to go after his fellow Republicans or to blunder into making news. "Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad -- they would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party -- and I don't -- as having an orthodoxy that doesn't allow for disagreement, doesn’t allow for finding some common ground," Bush said, adding that he views the hyper-partisan moment as "temporary."

"Back to my dad's time and Ronald Reagan's time --they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan support," he said. Reagan "would be criticized for doing the things that he did."

The notion that Jeb Bush is going to be the Republican presidential nominee is a fantasy nourished by the people who used to run the Republican Party. Bush has been out of a game that changed radically during the 12 years(!) since he last ran for office. He missed the transformation of his brother from Republican savior to squish; the rise of the tea party; the molding of his peer Mitt Romney into a movement conservative; and the ascendancy of a new generation of politicians — Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, among them — who have been fully shaped by and trained in that new dynamic. Those men occasionally, carefully, respectfully break with the movement. Scorning today’s Republican Party is, by contrast, the core of Jeb’s political identity.

...

Bush was in the Bloomberg Tower for a board meeting of the personal foundation of the former New York mayor, whose aggressive campaigns for gun control make him, after President Obama, perhaps the most hated figure among pro-gun Republicans. The foundation’s focus includes two particularly bitter pills for Republicans: shutting down coal-fired power plants and campaigning globally for the kinds of new taxes on junk food whose introduction in New York City infuriated the right.

Yeah I don't get this. It's like when they said they had made a movie called RIPD, about dead cops who come back as ghosts to fight supernatural criminals, and that it starred Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges.

And I said, "Why would you do that? Who is that for?"

And they said, "It's for everybody! It's got Ryan Reynolds! And Jeff Bridges!!!"

And I said, "They were more relevant like six years ago..."

And they said, "But imagine!!! Ghost Cops!!!"

And I said, "Isn't this just Men in Black with the supernatural instead of the sci-fi?"

And they said, "Yes! Exactly! That's why everyone will love it. Plus-- Act of Love!!!"

But they didn't love it, because it was a really dumb idea that exactly no one was asking for.

Oh: And the new news is that, allegedly, the Bush Brand is a now a benefit rather than a hindrance, as George W. Bush (and his dad) have risen in public esteem (or just fallen in public antipathy).

I don't have as much of a problem with the Bush Brand as other people; I have a problem with the Jeb Bush Brand.

I think it's absurd for a candidate's main selling point to be how much he hates the party whose nomination he's seeking.

You know, I don't believe in "The Base," whatever that is. I have arguments with those who claim to speak for this mythical Base.

I have a basic problem with claimed orthodoxies.

But I also have a problem with being an obnoxious idiot, and just flat-out running on a campaign of You Republicans Are Stupid And Everything You Believe Is Hatred and Distemper is an obnoxious idiot move.

I have literally not heard this guy say One Thing he likes about Republicanism or conservatism. All I hear is is List of Ways In Which We've Disappointed Him.

Well, I've had six years of one entitled narcissist telling me I have to elevate my game to gain his (His?) approval.

That's enough for me. I've had a snootful.

I'd like to be pandered to a little bit now, Thank You Very Much Drive Through.

Who are these dumb fuckers who think I want to be "challenged" all the time?

Pro-Tip: No one wants to be "challenged," including, especially, those who claim the loudest to seek "challenging" points of view.

posted by Ace at 05:30 PM

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