Presidents Past, Present, and Potential

Ever since the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal that I believe was designed by the opponents of New Jersey's governor Chris Christie to eliminate from presidential consideration the one Republican in the country who was consistently outpolling Hillary Clinton, his name has faded and suddenly, almost out of the blue, former Florida governor Jeb Bush has been getting a lot more press attention.  H-m-m, I'm sure that's just a coincidence, or is it...

I've always had a higher opinion of Jeb than his brother George W., and wish that he instead had served as president from 2001 to 2009.  But back in 1994, when the two brothers were simultaneously running for governor in two important states, George won Texas in a squeaker over Ann Richards while Jeb lost Florida, also in a squeaker, to Lawton Chiles.  This gave George the political advantage over his brother by already having been in office for more than one term before the 2000 election.  Meanwhile Jeb, who ran again in Florida and won in 1998, was only in there a couple of years and was behind his brother on the national political scene.  Had things happened just a tiny bit different in Texas and Florida in '94, our history no doubt would have been vastly different.  Of course, the same could be said about the 2000 presidential election when, in Palm Beach, Florida, a misguided "butterfly" ballot design caused thousands of voters to vote for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore, handing that state (and the election) over to Bush by just over a 500-vote margin.

George W. Bush, who liked to pride himself as being a "decider" while in office, nevertheless was heavily dependent on his vice-president and advisors for the direction that led to his "deciding".  From my experience living in the state for which he was governor for eight years, I feel that Jeb is someone who tends to think more for himself and uses those around him more for information and less for direction.  But please don't get the notion that George W.'s emphasis was necessarily wrong: our current president Barack Obama also seems crystal clear about his own sense of direction for the country...but unfortunately often seems to display an unsettling and frustrating degree of indecision.

Rachel Maddow on MSNBC continues her almost nightly obsession to nail Chris Christie as the mastermind to the bridge closings on the Hudson River late last year that tied up traffic for a while.  But this story has lost its traction and I don't hear too many others, even on MSNBC, which is noted for its more liberal, pro-Democratic Party leanings, pushing this story.  But the damage has been done to Christie, at least in the short term.  Don't think that I'm being partisan here, though.  What happened to Christie recently is nothing compared to what I believe will be unleashed against Hillary Clinton in the next couple of years by HER opposition in the media (especially on Fox News Channel)...