"They" know now.

[grantcart]

The 'powers to be' in the Republican Party have been worried for a long time.

He couldn't beat McCain. He couldn't beat a weak Republican field and only outspent them into oblivion.

He insults their cookies. He doesn't connect. He just isn't that swift on his feet.

Well neither was Sarah Palin but they were able to give her a script and a stage and limit the damage.

Send him to London. Give him a soft audience and a sympathetic and polite country, a strong friend.

Get him ready for going on a bigger stage. Get him ready for the debates.

Now they know.

Save your money for the Senate campaigns, keep your distance from the disaster, keep Jeb Bush away from this guy.

Prepare for the off year 2014 when a lot of Democrats and Independents don't vote.

Get the 'A' team ready for 2016. Let President Obama solve the problem of the uninsured and the deficit, he won't have any money left over to do anything significant anyway. Even let him reduce the size of the military a little. In 2016, in their thinking, we can return to pillage the treasury and cut taxes again.

Now they know what we have known for years.

Romney isn't the guy.

[CrispyQ]

1. Never count your chickens before they hatch.

Republicans play to win. Every. Fucking. Year.

[justabob]

2. I don't disagree but one question

Who exactly is the A team? As bad as Mitt is, he is the best they've got. Jeb isn't going to get them where they want to go, even in 2016. There are still a few sane 'paleocons' out there, but they won't get a shot as long as the Tea Party is what it is. Having said that, I think the Tea Party has already peaked and it is all down hill for them now, but they will probably keep flogging their ideology as long as they can. I don't know where the GOP goes from here. I guess they pray for new blood.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Santorum 2016!!!!

or so I've heard.

[justabob]

7. lol

I am pretty sure he is done. I don't think even a City Council would have him.

[grantcart]

4. Jeb Bush

Don't discount Jeb. He is a much smarter guy than George. He has a much broader vision and his wife is a Mexican born American.

They have to go to Jeb because they have to reverse the current trend of Hispanics going to the Democrats by huge margins.

There is no way for the Republicans to remain a viable national party if the largest growing demographic is lost to them.

If the Hispanic voters in AZ would register and vote at the same percentages as the Whites then AZ would be a blue state.

They cannot permanently lose the Hispanic demographic and survive.

Romney is not the guy.

[justabob]

6. still not sold on Jeb

I know he is "the smart one", but I still don't think it is enough - Mexican born wife or not. The Bush name is going to have to be retired. The GOP has been on a dead end road for some time throwing everyone but rich white guys under the bus. Four years and a big name with a Mexican wife will not do much to counter the decades of brown/black hate, and especially the vitriol against immigrants. They are going to have to turn their backs on years of GOP rhetoric and do a complete 180 (on more than just immigration and racism), which only a handful of republicans are starting to realize. I don't think it can be done in this climate of whacko-crazidom and polarization.

[Raster]

8. If not Jeb, then Jeb's son George P.

Half Hispanic, born and bred to be the Bush* for the 21st century. And when I say "born and bred," I do not exaggerate.

[justabob]

12. ugh

I don't doubt the born and bred bit at all.

[IggleDoer]

9. Jeb's wife is Columbian, not Mexican

May not have as much influence on Latinos in the US.

[Raster]

13. I beg to differ. Jeb's wife, Columba, is of Mexican decent.

Mrs. Bush was born as Columba Garnica Gallo in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she grew up and attended high school. Her parents were José María Garnica, a migrant worker, and Josefina Gallo. She met Jeb Bush in 1971 in León, where he was teaching English as part of a foreign exchange program. They were married on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas. The couple have three children: George P. Bush, Noelle Bush, and Jeb Bush, Jr.

[grasswire]

10. our journos are ready for Jeb

Jeb has two bimbo eruptions in his background, and our journos are ready to expose that if he throws his hat in.

[Raster]

14. Again, the bush we need to be looking out for is Jeb's oldest son....

...George P. Bush. He will be the next Bush to sit on the throne.

George Prescott Garnica Bush (born April 24, 1976) is an attorney, U.S. Navy Reserve officer and real estate developer. He is the eldest son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the nephew of former President George W. Bush, and the namesake grandson of former President George H. W. Bush. George Prescott is also named for his great-grandfather, Senator Prescott Bush.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Bush

Babs of the beautiful mind referred to Jeb and Columba's kids as "our little brown ones."

[malthaussen]

5. I've been thinking their strategy is

... to get the Dems focussed on beating Mr Romney for president, while they try to keep control of at least the House to render Mr Obama's second term as ineffectual as the past 2 years have been. So long as they keep blocking most of what they don't want, it doesn't matter if Jesus Christ is in the WH.

They have so much money they can force the Dems to spend so much on the WH there isn't enough left to make a fight for Congress, where it really matters. Kind of like the Cold War -- make the bad guys spend so much to keep up, their economy implodes.

I also think the Dems need to look forward to 2016 soonest. Even if, by improbable and kind fate, Congress were to shift to a Dem majority so that the line was cleared for some progressive legislation, the four years of the second term would not be enough to get everything up and running, especially considering the sizeable percentage of Dems who aren't, really. Lose the game in 2016, keep up this 8-on, 8-off pattern that has dominated the past few of decades, and the US is going nowhere except deeper into the mire.

-- Mal

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. Turnout in Presidential Years

We need 25 seats in the House to retake the majority (which we could lose again in 2014), but between 2013 and 2015, Obama and the Democrats would have time to, say, attack Citizen's United head-on.