The kiss of death for Donald Trump's candidacy

As the man who had Sarah Palin as the GOP nominee in 2012, and was certain it was going to be Jeb! Bush in 2016, I am now going to do what no heinous statement from Donald Trump, or vicious act of one of his followers, has thus far been able to do:  kill his campaign.

I am really beginning to believe that Trump can win the republican nomination.

Ted Cruz may be the candidate du jour for the scared GOP establishment, and the current leader in Iowa, but we've seen how republican establishment candidates fare in the general election (see also:  McCain, John and Romney, Willard) and how republican campaigns fade into oblivion after winning the Iowa Caucus (see also:  Huckabee, Mike and Santorum, Rick).  Ben Carson is as crazy as a shit house rat, but he's neither white enough nor angry enough to pacify republicans' main voters:  angry, white men.  Rubio has shown again and again that he's a lightweight, and if he doesn't like the work that goes into being a U.S. Senator, he's going to like being President of the United States a lot less (it's 24/7/365, Marco--think!).  And the rest?  Well, if you're polling in the low single digits at this point, you can turn out the lights:  the party is over.

The possibility of a brokered convention  has been discussed of late, but there hasn't been one since before I was born (1959), and one could easily see the republican base going full on ape shit if it feels its chosen candidate has been screwed out of the nomination.

And that leaves republicans one Donald J. Trump as their Presidential nominee in 2016.

God only knows who he'll pick for his V.P.

Peace,
emaycee

Jeb! and experienced leadership

Jeb! Bush touting his "experienced leadership" this week in Iowa:

[Bush] said Americans have previously “bet on someone who was unproven,” two-term Democratic President Barack Obama, which Bush said “didn’t work out.”

Kind of wondering exactly what the definition of "didn't work out" is to Jeb!--does he mean the stimulus package that rescued the economy from his brother's ineptitude and helped ensure we didn't fall into a second Great Depression?  Or the bailing out of the now healthy auto industry which saved millions of jobs?  Or the job growth that's second only to the Clinton administration in the last fifty years?   The near doubling of the stock market?  How about millions more Americans who have healthcare insurance?  Or maybe that he didn't get us into two wars and ultimately botch both of them?  Or that we haven't had a terrorist attack on our soil for the length of his term?  The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?  Normalization of relations with Cuba?  Gay marriage?

Too bad Jeb!'s older brother "didn't work out"--we'd all be a hell of a lot better off if he had.

Peace,
emaycee

Responsibility for thee, but not for me

Jeb! Bush and his handlers this week are trying to claim that George W. Bush "inherited" 9/11 and the recession that began in March of 2001, and that both were actually Bill Clinton's fault.

Funny how that when it comes to food stamps or welfare or unemployment insurance conservatives are always screaming about how the folks who need them should buck up and take personal responsibility for the errors of their ways, but when it comes to republicans taking responsibility for being asleep at the wheel on 9/11 or having habitually bad policies that lead us into economic ruin (tax cuts! tax cuts!) it's always someone else's fault.

It appears the only thing republicans are truly masters of is shoveling horseshit.

Peace,
emaycee

Jeb! lives

Despite the death knells of recent days, I'll play devil's advocate and say that I still think Jeb! Bush will be the republican nominee in 2016.   While Bush's poll numbers have indeed fallen, he's still in the thick of it and is nowhere near becoming an afterthought like Scott Walker.  He's raised a ton of money and shows no signs of slowing down.  I think his using his brother to raise campaign cash is a purposeful reminder to the powers that be that George W. won two Presidential elections that weren't guarantees and that the Bush family knows how to win (actually governing, though, be damned).  Even when he campaigns, like he did recently in Cedar Falls, IA, he's not feeding the crowd red republican primary meat--he's talking like a Presidential nominee, discussing education and foreign policy.

The only candidate that wouldn't surprise me if he beat Bush would be Marco Rubio--only because the power brokers in the republican party might decide to go with young and new over tried and true.  But they'd be getting essentially the same candidate.

And even though I'm supporting Bernie Sanders, I still think Hillary Clinton is going to trounce Bush come November 2016.

Y'all can thank me in Jamuary of 2017 when the first Democratic Socialist is being sworn in as President of the United States after crushing Donald Trump on the first Tuesday of November 2016...

Peace,
emaycee

Same old, same old

Ol' Jeb! really went out on a limb this week with his proposal to cut taxes to three rates (10%, 20%, and 28%) and to cut the corporate tax rate to 20%.

Can you say "idiot" boys and girls?

Cutting taxes in this way won't do a shit's worth of good for America's poor or her middle class (didn't work under Reagan or Bush the Lesser), but it sure will help Corporate America and the wealthy.  If that's what Jeb! truly believes--that putting more money in the hands of America's rich elite at the expense of the rest of us is sound economic policy--then he's even dumber than his moronic brother.

Somebody might want to inform Jeb! that he's running to be the President of the United States of America, not the President of the United States of Koch Brothers or the President of the United States of Corporate America.

Though a nagging intuition tells me that his rich ass would prefer the latter.

Peace,
emaycee

Jeb! jumps the shark

The powers that be in the republican party may eventually decide that Jeb! Bush gives them the best chance to avoid catastrophe in the 2016 elections but even they have to be wondering these days.  Jeb! is tanking in the polls (down to 5% in Iowa) and seems incapable of keeping his foot out of his mouth.  This past week Jeb! did it again when he said that President Obama and Secretary Clinton were responsible for the mess in Iraq.

I know Jeb! loves his brother and all, but I'm pretty sure that outside of Fox News not even our clueless national media is going to give Jeb! a pass on that one.  Bush the Lesser and his cast of clowns made an epic error going into Iraq and no amount of wishing on the part of republican candidates won't make it so.

Besides, it's my guess that voters in 2016 will be looking a lot more to candidates keeping us out of the mess in the Middle East rather than than those like Jeb! who want to drag us further in.

Peace,
emaycee

Thanks, Jeb!

Jeb! Bush today continued his Romneyesque campaign by declaring that he wasn't sure the United States should be spending $500 million on women's health issues.

One supposes the staffs of both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are already planning their TV ads featuring Jeb!, should he win the republican nomination for the general election in 2016, highlighting Jeb! not giving a shit about women's issues.

Hard to believe republicans could do worse with women voters than they did in the past two Presidential elections, but Jeb! is doing his best to make sure they do.

Peace,
emaycee

Jeb!'s bush league week that was

I continue to believe that, in the end, Jeb! Bush will be the republican nominee for President in 2016.  But he is doing his best to turn me into a non-believer (and probably has Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton salivating at the chance to run against him):

• In a week when good news about Medicare was released, Jeb! decided to push Paul Ryan's bullshit voucher program, at a Koch Brothers sponsored event, no less.  Fortunately for the rest of us who aren't Koch Brother toadies, there was a nice elderly woman at a townhall that told Jeb! to blow it out his ass.
• Jeb! also penned an op-ed this week highlighting his "new" plan to save the country--which it turns out, is pretty much a rehashing of old republican ideas which worked so well for his big brother.  Other than that whole Great Recession, two disastrous wars, Hurricane Katrina response, asleep at the wheel on 9/11, couple of thingies.
• And just to close it out, Jeb! proclaimed that the whole police killing scores of African-Americans, as is being pointed out by the folks at Black Lives Matter, is actually an attack on white people.  Heaven help us all....

And with each passing day, Jeb! continues to make Mitt Romney look like an astute and media savvy candidate.

Peace,

emaycee

Idiot idea #2

Jeb! Bush is shooting for a 4% economic growth rate during his Presidency, and the way we're going to do it is by having American workers work more hours, and in turn, this would increase our pay.

Been there, done that, and got screwed in the process.  We already work more hours than everyone else in the rest of the world,  have raised productivity to all-time highs, and all we have to show for it is wage stagnation

Short response:  Fuck You,  Jeb!

And should the Democratic nominee in 2016 be Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, their campaigns should absolutely hammer Jeb! Bush over this comment until he's back in the dark cave from which this horrid idea originated.

Peace,
emaycee