Jeb Bush?

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

But is Jeb’s race over before it begins? He would be running, after all, to lead a party he seems to disdain, a party that has become so fragmented and pulled to the right that it would rather lose the election than be led by someone as moderate as Jeb Bush. Even W. is considered a liberal in today’s fire-breathing G.O.P.

“I do think we’ve lost our way,” Jeb said in an interview on stage with a Fox News reporter, urging Republicans to move out of Crazy Town: “We need to elect candidates that have a vision that is bigger and broader, and candidates that are organized around winning the election, not making a point.” [...]

Jeb thinks Republicans have lost their way. He may soon learn that a lot of conservatives think they have found their way — and it’s not the joyful, loving, government-can-be-a-force-for-good way. It’s the mean, cruel, gut-the-government way.

-- Maureen Dowd at The New York Times

Comments

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Does Romney win the primary if there's simply one conservative option as opposed to 4 or 5? Probably not, he barely got 50% of the primary vote even when everyone else had dropped out.

So if - as seems likely - the deregulation of campaign finance means that wealthy donors will be able to finance more candidates, for longer campaigns, this is going to be a continuing problem for the Republican party, no?

I mean - in other contexts you celebrate the seedy Adelson/Gingrich connection as having given Americans more choices. But here you seem to be worried that more choices is incompatible with "smart electioneering." You somehow seem to think it's possible to have it both ways: get the conservative candidates that the establishment doesn't favor, but with the oversight and discipline that only the establishment can provide.

Seems to be a conundrum!