How much of a threat is Jeb Bush?

[CajunBlazer]

39. He would make a formidable candidate, but can he even get nominates

Jeb is doing something unique in Republican politics; he is not pandering to the far right base of the GOP on issues like immigration and Common Core which will should make him more palatable to independents and Hispanics should he win the Republican nomination. The downfall of recent Republican Presidential nominees is that they bent over so far backwards to get the vote of the Tea Party zealots they became virtually unelectable in the general election. However, the question is, can any candidate alienate the far right Republican base and still gain the nomination especially in this election's packed field.

However, as pointed by the other posters he has the backing of the establishment wing of the Republican Party and he consequently has far more money to spend than any other Republican candidate. In past Republican Presidential nomination processes it was the far right base that made the the most noise, but it was the establishment candidate who won the nomination. However, in the past the establishment candidate at least paid lip service to the Tea Party types so this is a whole new ball game.

As for the Bush name, as I wrote in a recent blog entry on cajunscomments.com, "The Bush Name – A Great Asset and a Great Liability", his family associations is both a blessing and a curse. Does anyone believe that Jeb would have been elected Governor of Florida without his dad's name and connection? I doubt it. However, even many Republicans believe that George W's eight years were a disaster and anything that reminds of that era are not welcome. Jeb's recent inability to make a clean break from W's foreign policy blunders hasn't helped his cause.

Frankly I think that Jeb would be among the strongest competitors and I think many Republicans believe that as well even though they would rather someone who is more ideologically pure. I would personally rather that the Republicans nominate an Ideologically pure candidate (someone easy to beat) so I am hope Jeb and perhaps one are two of the others don't break out of the pack and remain in the running when it becomes a two or three candidate race for the nomination. Then electability will become a much bigger consideration among Republican voters and Jeb could rise to the top.