Sure, We Need Another Hero … But Does He/She Have To Be Named Bush?

Opinion from the desk of Mark Christopher

[New York, NY] Late last month, former Florida governor Jeb Bush wrote an opinion column for The Wall Street Journal extolling the virtues of the free market and how if we just stop regulating, we can enjoy our “right to rise” as Americans.

“We have to make it easier for people to do the things that allow them to rise. We have to let them compete. We need to let people fight for business. We need to let people take risks. We need to let people fail. We need to let people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And we need to let people enjoy the fruits of good decisions, even good luck,” wrote Bush.

Too bad he didn’t tell his brother George any of this, oh say, ten years ago.

The conservative blogosphere ignited with fever dreams of the former Gov. Bush jumping into the 2012 presidential race to save the GOP ticket, which currently finds the unlikeable – and ethically/factually challenged – former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is moving to the front.

No wonder Republicans are clamoring for Jeb – since 2008, they have been searching for an alternative to Mitt Romney, someone, anyone other than the religious cult leader mega-millionaire with the personality of a catfish and car-salesman hair who basically implemented the blueprint to President Obama’s health-care overhaul they are all campaigning against.

Yeah I said cult. Ask an ex-Mormon, they’ll tell you. Not to mention Romney’s the world’s biggest flip-flopper on just about every hot-button issue for conservatives.

But another Bush? C’mon. I think the country would rather sit through four more years of Obama, or – gasp – four years of Newt Inc. before we handed the country’s keys to the Bush family again. However much smarter Jeb is than W, it doesn’t matter – the damage done by the Bush family reign is why the country is the way it is now.

Can a Bush fix it? Maybe, but the Bush family had their chance in 2000 and they sent us the dumb one, the one Karl Rove and Dick Cheney could control like a puppet. We are still cleaning up that crime scene. The mighty white GOP is wisely trying to pin it all on Obama – you know, blame the black guy – but the electorate is a little smarter than that.

Photo: Mark Christopher/Sunshine Slate Images

Newt Gingrich is now tied Mitt Romney in the GOP’s quest to beat President Obama

They know that both Iraq and Afghanistan was Bush’s doing, as was the massive Wall Street bail out. They know the mortgage crisis happened under W’s watch as did 9-11. They know that deficits soared and the income gap between the haves and the have-nots widened exponentially under W’s trickle-down theology.

They know that the middle class is flailing while CEOs are banking tens of millions of dollars a year, practically tax free. George W. Bush’s fingerprints are all over the place and the chalk outline that used to be America is being erased to make room for the next big Koch Brothers-approved money machine.

For gosh sakes, W left office with an approval rating of 22%.

But that’s how bad Gingrich, Romney, Ron Paul (heroin, anyone?), Herman Cain (Mr. Hanky Panky, really?) and Rick Perry (he’s Texas Toast) are – bad enough to consider another Bush, even if he is “the smart one.” What they don’t understand is that Jeb Bush is not 100% conservative either. He doesn’t cotton to guys like Grover Norquist putting the screws to his policies, or play Rove’s reindeer games.

Jeb Bush doesn’t play by anybody’s rules but Jeb’s. He is pragmatic and unpredictable, like Obama. In short, Jeb’s a Democrat – he just leans much, much farther to the right than your average bear. You, know, like a Republican.

Does that make any sense? Neither does Jeb Bush in 2012, at least according to the man, the myth, the sort-of legend himself.

“Republicans will be choosing from the candidates currently in the race,” Jeb Bush told Right Turn last month.

Get over it Republicans – no one is gonna ride in on a glorious white horse and carry you off to Happy Conservative Place, you know the place where everything is colored brilliantly in red, white and blue, nobody on the right side of the aisle ever does anything wrong, and Ann Coulter does three shows nightly.

Your choice is simple: Mitt or Newt. Slick 50 or old salty. Get used to the taste Republicans.

By: Mark Christopher/Sunshine Slate

Lead images: Newt Gingrich & Mitt Romney pics by Mark Christopher/Sunshine Slate Images. Jeb Bush photo: official Governor’s photo

Jeb Bush