A few days ago, George Bush the elder managed to horrify the world by suggesting that his other son Jeb should run for Senate and eventually aim at the White House. I’m not sure if he thought Dubya did such a good job that the country needed another Bush or if he recognized how crashingly bad Junior did and was hoping to salvage the family name, but either way he thought it was a good idea.
Just now, the country breathed a collective sigh of relief as Jeb said he ain’t gonna do it. His logic is breathtaking.
“While the opportunity to serve my state and country during these turbulent and dynamic times is compelling, now is not the right time to return to elected office,” he said.
Of course it isn’t. You might want to wait until the wounds have healed over before you go about trying to rip them open again. While the country’s dragging its stumps toward the Obama presidency, it’s unlikely that many people would relish the idea of continuing the “legacy”.
Then Reuters takes a bit of a bizarre right turn:
Democrats were likely to be heartened by Bush’s decision, as a race against him might well have been more difficult than other potential Republican candidates.
What? Why? Who in their right mind would think racing against another Bush would be harder than a race against anything short of a basketball with an angry face drawn on it? The entire 2008 election season, from the primaries even, showed Republicans doing their damndest to stay as far away from GWB as they could manage. McCain/Palin were trying to call themselves the agents of change because everyone, everyone, in the RNC realized that even pretending that the Bush years weren’t poison to the party was a surefire way to be obliterated in the election.
McCain only had a fighting chance by keeping a safe distance while accepting support behind closed doors. The picture of McCain hugging Bush was used as a successful attack ad. McCain eventually had to say outright “I’m not George Bush, if you wanted to run against Bush you should have run four years ago” and that line was considered an applause point by Republicans. Why Reuters would think that a Bush even has a fighting chance on the national scene baffles me.
