As the First Family starts shuffling out of power, the first one to go will be Jeb, the President's brother. Jeb's two full terms as governor of Florida end next month, and apparently there are all kinds of parties and commemorations for him at his "Retirement". Today, his father, the elder George of the President Georges, broke down and cried while giving a speech about his son in the Florida State Capitol. I'm sure it was an emotional time for him. It seems that what most teared him up was talking about his son's defeat in the 1994 gubernatorial election. Jeb went on to win in the next election in 1998.
We all know the history. Jeb and Georgie ran for governor of their respective states in 1994. George defeated governor Ann Richards in Red Texas. Jeb couldn't knock out popular governor Lawton Chiles in Purple Florida. After a term and a half, George ran for President and won, in a well-known sign of the apocalypse.
If you think about it, had Jeb become governor in 1994, he might have run for President instead. He was certainly considered a better candidate. Despite his unconsitutional and highly political intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, he's smarter, more articulate, better traveled, and more thoughtful than his older brother.
It makes me wish I had voted for him instead of Chiles. It makes me want to cry for our country too.
4 comments:
"George ran for President and won, in a well-known sign of the apocalypse."
What was the sign?
"Jeb('s)... highly political intervention in the Terri Schiavo case..."
Given his political position, I guess it would've been impossible for the intervention *not* to be "highly" political.
It's tongue in cheek. I'm suggesting (humorously) that George's ascention to the White House was itself a sign of the apocalypse.
Your statement that it would have been impossible for Jeb's intervention not to be highly political is right on the money. He should never have interfered in the case - he was not her doctor, her lawyer, her husband. He did it for the political benefit.
Incidentally, he (along with certain members of the US Congress) helped solidify the Right Wing positions: Interference in life and death decisions is more sacred to Republicans than the sanctity of marriage.
However, it did backfire on him. And the point was not to trash Jeb, but to be wistful about an America that might have been.
"He did it for the political benefit."
Why not posit that Jeb did for moral reasons? Impossible, because he's a Republican?
(I kind of figured your statement was tongue in cheek. I just wanted to see how much you meant it.)
Hey man -- let me know if you start posting again and I'll toss a link to your page back up. Rock on. Hope all's well.
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