Is Jeb Bush actually a moderate, or does the media just think he is?

[applegrove]

Is Jeb Bush actually a moderate, or does the media just think he is?

by Andrew Prokop at Vox

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/28/8305229/jeb-bush-andrew-ferguson

"SNIP...............


The point? Other likely 2016 Republican candidates are contorting themselves on immigration. Recently, Scott Walker stressed his opposition to "amnesty" in public, while privately telling elites that he'd support, at least, a path to legal status. Dara Lind has a good rundown of the controversy here. But Bush is taking the opposite approach, not only playing up his support of legal status in both public and private, but arguing that it is the true conservative position.

So here, Bush's position-taking isn't just rhetorical. It's a genuine attempt to shift his party and its base from their current default view, which is opposition to immigration reform that legalizes the status of unauthorized immigrants.

The upshot is that by challenging his party on one high-profile issue, Bush has to do less to seem moderate elsewhere, in the eyes of both the press and activists, when the general election rolls around. And somewhat fairly so! With the parties as polarized  as they are, it is genuinely unusual for a candidate to forthrightly take on the base.

But, as both liberals and conservatives agree, Bush's overall governing record has very little that's moderate about it. So, in an interesting sense, Bush's immigration position lets him have things both ways — it gives the media a peg to hang the moderate label on Bush, but as the right learns more about his record, it lets him tout that he is, otherwise, a down-the-line conservative.



................SNIP"

[deutsey]

1. Was George W. Bush a "compassionate conservative"? n/t

[Wellstone ruled]

2. John Ellis Bush is not a Moderate!!!!

[peace13]

3. He isn't and they know he isn't.

He's the lunch they plan on feeding us. That is all.

[Frank Cannon]

6. The "clown car" only exists to show us how "moderate" he is.

But he's not. He's a right-wing job-destroying, war-profiteering asshole just like the rest of his family, going back generations. It's absolutely unbelievable that we're even entertaining the idea that George Bush's brother could make a good President. In any sane universe, he'd have to change his name to Melvin Hempleman and live out the rest of his days hiding in a shack in the woods.

[peace13]

12. Spot on! Nt

[davidsilver]

4. No way! Maybe seems like only when compared to other GOP RW extremists.

[liberalhistorian]

7. That's what I was thinking. As bad as he is,

compared to Cruz, Walker, Christie, etc. he seems downright sane. Even though he's really not, he's just smoother and more practiced at hiding it.

[longship]

5. Give a man the reputation of an early riser, he can sleep until noon.

(Quote by Samuel Clemens)

With respect to moderate Republicans, also applies to John McCain, and others. And yes, Jeb Bush and his brother W.

R&

[TheNutcracker]

8. JEB wrecked Florida forever! And HE'S A CROOK...moderate, conservative? Who cares, he's a crook!

Here is just one reminder...how the family is always robbing banks...known as 'savings and loans'



Let us not forget that Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million dollar loan from the Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, FL. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at $500,000.00, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars, as in the past.

This family robs banks and created a drug war to run drugs.

[on point]

9. He is very far right, but moderate compared to rw nut cases

And that is a problem in general where media has lost the sense of where people are on the scale. For instance what they call far left is actually pretty center left. There little to nothing of a far left in this country. I would say HRC should classed as a moderate traditional Rockefeller country club republican. She is socially liberal but right of center on economics and foreign affairs

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Stalin was to the right of Trotsky.../NT

[greatlaurel]

11. The Bushes are not moderates. They are in politics to take the public for everything they can.

The Republican Party is no longer the party of small businesses and farmers. Unfortunately, the GOP base are still convinced the GOP is on their side. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Republican Party has been taken over by the Koch's and Bush's and a few others. They are not interested in business, they are only interested in taking all the public's tax dollars and public properties for themselves. They are already experimenting with selling off public assets like the National Parks and National Forests. Not to mention the privatization of all education for the benefit of the corporations.

The Bush family are extremists, they should be called vandals.

[hobbit709]

13. He's a moderate the way Louie Gohmert is a Mensa member.

[KamaAina]

14. He just plays one on TV.

[Major Hogwash]

15. Moderate? Compared to what?

The Elian Gonzales case certainly showed that Jeb was no moderate!!!
His stance against normalizing relations with Cuba certainly shows that Jeb is no moderate!

Bush is a member of the Bush family, ergo, he is a consummate, experienced liar!!

[11 Bravo]

16. Ask Michael Schiavo.