Month: August 2015

Jeb Returns to His Neocon Roots: Vows to Finish Mideast Wars His Brother Started

Jon Ponder

Always Wrong: PNAC founders, from left, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Kristol, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz
Always Wrong: PNAC founders, from left, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Kristol, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz
Five days after calling his brother George W. Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq a “mistake” and saying he “wouldn’t have gone in,” Jeb Bush announced to a war-weary nation that he’s running for president not just to become the third Bush in the White House, but also to be the third Bush president to invade the Middle East.

In a speech at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., yesterday Bush announced essentially that, if elected, he would revive the Bush Doctrine, the plan concocted by George W. Bush, Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, and other neoconservatives that called for using military force to subjugate the Middle East under the guise of democratizing it but with the real intention of control its “strategic interests,” which is to say its oil reserves.

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Moody’s Predicts Democratic Whitehouse Win

Buck Banks

“The Moody’s Analytics presidential election model has accurately predicted every presidential election since 1980. And it indicates a Democrat will win in 2016,” Yahoo News reports. “Moody’s newly released analysis for the next election, titled “A Nail-Biter in 2016,” predicts that the Democratic nominee for president will win with exactly 270 votes from the U.S. Electoral College — the minimum amount required to win. Meanwhile, the Republican nominee is forecast to earn 268 votes.”

Biden Beats Clinton on Authenticity

Buck Banks

What Biden is, even to those who dismiss him as slightly doddering and in over his head, is as real and authentic as they come…With Biden, you get the politically incorrect verbal lapses, the Veep-like comedic value. But you also get warmth and authenticity and a handshake that means something. … Clinton’s pitch is pretty much the polar opposite…Clinton’s first TV ad, released this week, tried to humanize her a bit by having her talk straight to camera about her mother…But Siri sounds more spontaneous when she’s finding me a gas station. Clinton’s team should probably take a moment to survey the wreckage of recent presidential campaigns that seemed immensely promising until the candidates themselves showed up and ruined everything. Al Gore, John Kerry, Mitt Romney and, yes, Hillary Clinton circa 2008 — all of them met the moment perfectly in terms of résumé and experience but lost to candidates who seemed more authentically themselves.

— Matt Bai

Trump Could Trump Trump in Debate

Buck Banks

Trump exists so much in his own universe that engaging him, poking the bear, seems likely to cause more harm than help. But that doesn’t mean he can’t implode himself. As impressive as Trump’s numbers are, they are still inextricably tied to the Trump Brand, the bullying, swaggering, “you’re a total loser” television personality. And as anyone who has ever worked in television can tell you, your brand can evaporate in one wrong second. Donald Trump, in order to keep this up, needs to keep being Donald Trump, and that’s a more delicate balance than one might think.

— Bloomberg

Clinton Continues to Dog Bush

Buck Banks

Jeb Bush said he is not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues. Now, he has got no problem giving billions of dollars away to super wealthy and powerful corporations, but I guess women’s health just isn’t a priority for him. … This really isn’t complicated. When you attack Planned Parenthood, you attack women’s health, and when you attack women’s health, you attack America’s health.