The Jeb Bush campaign is offering supporters a chance to win an all-expenses trip to New York to view the premier of the Stephen Colbert show on CBS. But wait, as ads on late night TV say, there is more. Jeb will join actor George Clooney as one of the first guests on the progressive star’s first show.
In an email to supporters, asking for a donation, Jeb wrote:
a VIP ticket to the very first taping of the Late Show with a new host, that’s something you’ll still be talking about 20 years from now.
Colbert, who has played a significant role in dumbing-down political discourse in this country, is taking over from David Letterman on September 8th. Colbert’s celebrity is based on his success skewering conservatives on his eponymous Comedy Central show.
While his show was never a ratings success, it played a pivotal role in establishing media narratives against conservative politicians and conservative policy positions. It is highly unlikely Colbert will deviate too far from this script in his new show.
Jeb’s raffle is a brutal reminder that the presumptive frontrunner doesn’t understand the party he is seeking to lead into the next Presidential contest.
“We don’t need another president who merely holds the top spot among the pampered elites of Washington,” Jeb said in his announcement speech. “We need a president willing to challenge and disrupt the whole culture in our nation’s capital.”
Were Bush to win the Presidency, he would be the third member of his immediate family to occupy the Oval Office. Hobnobbing with George Clooney and Colbert, a left-wing media darling, is hardly a path towards disrupting the culture in Washington. Rather, it is gliding a little too easily into its pampered confines.
Bush also said in his announcement speech that the Republicans needed a candidate who was “willing to lose the primary to win general.” What Bush absolutely doesn’t understand about conservatives is that we believe our policies will win the general.
For two elections Republicans have offered candidates who aggressively tried to downplay any conservative policy positions. They both lost, largely because they failed to give conservative voters are reason to go to the polls.
Bush’s phrase, though, suggests he believes there is something politically wrong with conservative positions. He seems to believe that some portion of what conservatives believe has to be surrendered in order to compete next November.
So, what then is the point of a Bush candidacy or Presidency? If America is looking for a President who can make small talk with George Clooney or Stephen Colbert, there is an entire Democrat party stuffed with politicians who want to do that.
With the economy tettering after more than a decade of failed policies, one of the last things the nation needs is a Republican candidate who wants to be accepted by the likes of Stephen Colbert. The absolute last thing we need, however, is a Republican candidate who thinks Republican voters will remember the premier of Colbert’s new show “20 years from now.”
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