I keep thinking the more people are exposed to Cruz, Walker, and especially Fiorina that the more they’ll like them.

Bush II, OIF

Bush III nomination for President.

Yes, people who say (correctly) that some small number of Republican judicial appointees end up being either less conservative than hoped and hyped or not conservative at all neglect to pay attention to the fact that that the majority of such appointments by Republicans, both to the Supreme Court and other federal courts, are quite conservative and most definitely FAR more conservative than judges appointed by Democrats. The latter are pretty much 100% liberal to leftist.

It matters.

I’ve written posts about this before, and I will again.

So it looks to me that when we have a Republican president, we get a mixture of conservatives, swing-vote justices who let us down on some key issues, and the occasional outright liberal.

But when we have a Democratic president, what do we get? Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer, Ginsburg — every one a down-the-line liberal. Jimmy Carter had no Supreme Court appointments to make (although he did appoint Breyer and Ginsburg to the Court of Appeals, thus enabling them to become future Supreme Court appointments). LBJ appointed Thurgood Marshall and Abe Fortas. Not since JFK appointed Byron White has a Democratic president wound up appointing a conservative Supreme Court justice.

I would much rather take my chances with a Republican president’s Supreme Court appointments than rely on a Democratic president’s Supreme Court appointments, because all of the Democratic appointees are going to be liberals, and only some of the Republican appointees are going to be liberals.

After John Roberts, that argument is no longer valid. No decision Roberts has made so far has been any different from the likely decisions of a liberal justice. Roberts saved Obamacare. Twice.

And while we’re on the subject of party distinctions, is there any substantive difference between a McConnell-led Senate and one led by Reid?

Finally, the last sentence in Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ seems appropriate right now. It reads, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

Why vote for a Dem-Lite? Simple: to prevent even worse things from happening.

A President Clinton or Sanders would do far, far more damage than a President Jeb Bush. Do you think Obamacare would have been passed with a President Jeb Bush? Do you think the Iran deal would have been concluded? Do you think Ferguson would have gotten as bad without Obama’s encouragement? Do you even think that Jeb Bush would do anywhere near the damage Obama (or another Democrat) has done or would do on immigration? Bush is relatively bad on immigration, but still nowhere near as bad as the Democrats.

And if that’s not enough, there’s the appointment of many federal judges and probably several Supreme Court justices. You’d be giving up the chance to set a majority conservative Supreme Court in place for many years, and you’d be assuring that it would be majority liberal for many years instead.

Jeb has a lot of support among what Ace of Spades calls the “donor class”. Big business types who regard the Bush family as a known quantity, and who like Jeb’s position on immigration, because it’ll give them access to a lot of cheap labor. I think other LIV Republicans are checking the Jeb box because they know the name, and because Bushes have won 3 out of the 4 presidential elections they’ve stood for.

I don’t really think Jeb can get the base fired up, and right now I don’t think he’ll be the nominee, but the Republican party has an amazing talent for putting up the worst and/or blandest candidate possible. I knew there was no hope for Dole or McCain. I thought Romney could have done well if he’d made more of an effort to educate the public on economic issues (and to go harder after Obama).

My early pic was Rand because I tend libertarian, but he’s proven to be something of a jackass, and I don’t think people will like him. Right now, I’m rooting for Carly, if for no other reason than I want to see self-described feminists rationalize pulling the lever for an old white man over a successful businesswoman. (I don’t think Hillary will get the D nod. Hell, I’ve got my doubts that she’ll avoid indictment before the election.)

I’ve dutifully voted for the Establishment candidates the GOP has put in front of us in the last two losing elections, the erratic and cranky McCain and Mister Nice Guy, Mitt Romney, who lacked the killer instinct to go after Obama at the crucial moment in the second debate, on the ropes and reeling.

So now the Republican Establishment gives us Jeb Bush, who’s about as inspiring as a bowl of green jello. No wonder Trump, that meglomaniacal rich kid blowhard and two-bit demagogue, is doing so well.

It wouldn’t be so bad to have an elitist clique running the Republican Party if they knew what they were doing. They’ve proven they don’t.