Jeb, Just Jeb will do fine

Look at that! He rushed up onto the stage to take the podium — “I’m fit, I’m fast, I’m ready to take on the White House!”

Jeb: son of a president, brother of a president — he couldn’t escape the fact that he is, after all, a Bush. In his announcement … official announcement … Bush barely mentioned the father and brother that preceded him on the presidential journey – he didn’t actually mention them by name — but he did say he met his first president at the hospital when he was born and his second president when he was brought home from the hospital after he was born.

The only other Bush to be mentioned by name, other than his wife and children, was his mother Barbara Bush. She still has a high approval rating.

But he did mention Ronald Reagan by name. There’s nothing that gets applause faster at a GOP rally than bringing up the old Gipper … or bashing President Obama or Hillary Clinton. And there was a lot of that.

According to Jeb — Jeb, just Jeb, no “Bush” — America has gone to Hell in a hand basket the last six years! It’s the Democrats’ fault! All of it! Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi!

Okay, let’s go back to this “Jeb” thing for a moment. Everybody who’s anybody in the media — left and right — has been talking about this “Jeb” thing.

in the entirety of his speech announcing his desire to be president, Jeb BUSH never once mention the previous two presidents named BUSH and on his campaign literature he doesn’t use his last name — his family name! Just Jeb! With an exclamation point. As if to say, “I’m not George OR George!”

• Between the lines speak: “Listen folks, my dad and older brother were failures as presidents, so let’s just not talk about them.”

His father, George H.W. Bush — Bush 41 — inherited the presidency from Ronald Reagan, the worst president in my lifetime; the president most responsible for the all the ills that have befallen the United States for the past 30-plus years. But Bush 41 was such a bad president he couldn’t win a second term — even after winning a very short war.

You can’t boil it down to just “Read my lips: no new taxes.” Or Ross Perot; America just didn’t like him, especially after so many Reagan Administration officials went to prison behind the Iran-Contra scandal. Reagan and Bush 41 dodged a bullet on that too because they both knew about the illegal sale of weaponry to Iran and the funding of a terrorist organization to fight the government of Nicaragua — and most likely the cover-up as well. So no, “Jeb!” doesn’t want to mention Daddy.

Then of course there is his older brother, George W. Bush — Bush 43. He and his administration lied to the American people to start an illegal war in Iraq, while letting Osama bin Laden go in Afghanistan. And on top of that Bush 43 was president when the world economy collapsed, due to the unfettered gambling by the Wall Street banks that were “too big to fail.”

So he can’t really bring up Dear Brother George without rehashing everything about Bush 43 that made him persona non grata in the GOP for most of the past seven years. Hell, “Jeb!” couldn’t even find the right answer to the Iraq question. First he said he would invade Iraq, and then back-peddled saying he didn’t understand the question … it was a pretty straightforward question. One would have to not understand English to not understand the question. Or be lying about it.

What was his final answer — five days later? Who cares? He screwed it up so badly it will play and play and play for as long as he hopes to be president.

In his speech Jeb! bragged about his time as governor of Florida, saying, “Executive experience is another term for preparation and there is no substitute for that.”

Sort of like your brother George’s executive experience as governor of Texas? D’OH!

Now, compare that to his number one rival: Hillary Clinton. In her speech she not only mentions Barack Obama by name, she proudly touts her role in his administration.

In the past six-plus years Barack Obama has been president the volume on the New York Stock Exchange, one of the primary indicators of the economy, in the six-plus years Obama has been president the volume has more than doubled. Unemployment has dropped from 10 percent to under six percent.

According to Forbes Magazine, home sales have risen since Barack Obama took office — another major indicator of the economy. And yet, to hear Jeb Bush tell the story, America is in ruins!

“We will get back on the side of free enterprise and free people,” he said. As if we had somehow left free enterprise. Business has never been so good for Big Business. The working class has continued to be kicked in the gut and teeth, but we are slowly making gains with minimum wage at least.

In foreign affairs the Middle East and parts of Africa are still a mess, but our relations with Europe are better than they were when Bush 43 was in the Oval Office. Things are a little iffy around the world, but according to the Pew Research Center, the reputation of the U.S. has risen, for the most part, around the world.

The one big exception being the majority of the Muslim world, which still hates America for invading Iraq. Indonesia though is the exception in the Muslim world, mainly because of Obama’s ties to the region.

You can also see the positive influence of President Obama and (former) Secretary Clinton in a most basic and visual example: this last world economic summit that involved the top economic powers in the world was the “G7,” not the “G8.” The U.S., under the leadership of Obama and Clinton, got the other six to lineup against Vladimir Putin, i.e. Russia, and kick them out of the summit. The big “get” on this one being Germany. Angela Merkel was — and might still be — a big ally of Putin.

While they still haven’t kicked Putin and Russia out of Ukraine and the Crimea, the G7 is lined up against the rogue leader.

And then Hillary mentioned by name the other successful president from the past 20-plus years — her husband, Bill Clinton. Not only did she proudly mention him, the old boy was at her Big Speech on Roosevelt Island.

While Hillary Clinton was reveling in the Democratic Party’s past, basing her campaign on Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Fights,” Jeb Bush, well, he wasn’t mentioning the previous two GOP administrations at all and really, only mentioned Ronald Reagan once. Hell, Jeb didn’t even want to use his family name — it has just too much baggage.

It couldn’t be ignored that neither George H.W. nor George W. Bush were on hand to help Jeb launch his campaign. Let’s stipulate that George H.W. Bush might be in too poor of health to travel. He’s been in and out of the hospital the past year, so he gets a pass. But Bush 43 is healthy.

The Bush Legacy will be the millstone around Jeb’s neck throughout the primary campaign and if he wins the GOP nomination you can bet the Democratic Party and its allies will make sure he feels the full weight of that millstone — not to mention all the damage “Reaganomics” is still doing to the nation.

You know, Donald Trump announced he is running for president as well. As funny as that is, and lets remind ourselves, Trump isn’t officially running until he files the paperwork, as kooky as Trump’s announcement speech was — he called America a Third World Country and threatened the Ford Motor Company, among other insane ideas — Trump could have a better shot at winning the GOP nomination than Jeb. Which, in other words means Jeb has no chance.

He’s pro-Common Core and pro Immigration reform, two things the GOP primary voters absolutely despise.

So, he’s too ashamed and embarrassed to use his family name and mention his father and brother, and the base doesn’t like him … Jeb Bush really doesn’t have much chance to win the first three GOP primaries. Which means his campaign is dead.

Good luck, Jeb. Keep speaking in Spanish. The Hispanic voters might like it, and it will get some support from that community, but all those crazy White people — that comprise a big part of the base — who demand English should be the official language of the U.S., consider it treason.

At the very least you have to admire Jeb’s cojones, defying some core beliefs of the base.