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Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2015 20:25:47 GMT
And yet the former Florida governor, who once accidentally checked "Hispanic" on a voter registration form, is doing everything but change his appearance to de-emphasize his inheritance. His presidential campaign logo, introduced over the weekend, is a simple exclamation: "Jeb!" His brother, the 43rd president, and his father, the 41st president, did not attend his presidential announcement speech in Miami on Monday. He didn't even mention them until nearly the end. In this country of ours, the most improbable things can happen," he said. "Take that from a guy who met his first president on the day he was born and his second on the day he was brought home from the hospital." And then the punch line: "The person who handled both introductions is here today. ... Please say hello to my mom, Barbara Bush." The adoration of the 90-year-old family matriarch was disrupted by demonstrators who wore T-shirts spelling out "Legal status is not enough." The candidate, taken off script, made a remark about immigration reform, then tried to pick up where he left off. Actually, the next heir to the Bush dynasty is going to be returning to his family over and over, whether he likes it. His name is the reason he is a leading contender on the presidential stage, the reason he has an enormous campaign war chest and the reason he became Florida's governor in the first place. Yet he is pointlessly running from it. "My life began in many ways when I was in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, where I met my wife," Bush says in a video put out by his campaign on the eve of his kickoff event. His desire to distance himself from the dynasty is understandable. His brother presided over an unpopular war and economic collapse. Many Republicans worry that giving their nomination to another Bush will blunt their complaint that the Democrats are giving their nomination to another Clinton. Hence Jeb's awkward dance of keeping his brother at arm's length while attempting not to insult him — a dance that recently tripped up the candidate no fewer than four times as he tried to say whether he would have gone to war in Iraq.
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Post by Admin on Jun 17, 2015 20:32:14 GMT
Unlike the other candidates, the wealthy real estate mogul doesn’t have to worry about soliciting donors, or crafting positions to appeal to special-interest money, or meeting absurd fund-raising expectations that they foolishly set for themselves. That saves him a lot of time to devote to his favorite pastime–self-promotion. If he wants to fight all the way to the convention, he could probably find more than enough money simply by searching the couch cushions at Mar-a-Lago for loose change. He’s a nuisance, a hothead, totally unqualified, a spoiler. But enough about Pat Buchanan, whose surprisingly strong, populist, “mad as hell” primary campaign against George H. W. Bush in 1992 left the Bush faction reeling all the way to their defeat in the general election. That nobody thinks Donald Trump has any hope of winning a primary, much less a single debate, makes it all the easier for him to surprise reporters simply by doing better than expected. If Donald Trump can manage a clever quip or two in the first debate, poke fun at himself, and not set his lectern, or the moderator daring to question him, on fire, he’ll impress the hell out of nearly everyone. Besides... You don’t spent 14 seasons out-grandstanding a pack of desperate ego maniac celebrities and not know a thing or two about commanding attention. With all due respect to Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, they can’t hold a candle, much less a soundbite, against the likes of Joan Rivers and Gary Busey. Trump knows how to take complicated issues and fit them into bumper-sticker phrases that can appeal to regular Joes (and Janes), even if they sound crazy to everyone else. A wacky billionaire with a hair-trigger temper and penchant for bizarre digressions decides to run for president. Where have we heard that one before? Oh, yes, when the allegedly nutty Ross Perot grabbed the highest number of votes of any third-party candidate in history, depriving Republican George H.W. Bush any chance of holding onto the White House against a candidate named Clinton.
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Post by Admin on Jun 21, 2015 20:29:48 GMT
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said on Sunday he wouldn’t be “baited” into the politically charged Confederate flag debate in South Carolina, joining a group of fellow GOP White House contenders that says the state must decide. “Everyone's being baited with this question as if somehow that has anything to do whatsoever with running for president," Huckabee, a 2008 presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "My position is it most certainly does not." Fellow GOP candidate and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum took a similar position. “We should let the people of South Carolina go through the process of making this decision," he said on ABC's "This Week." Their remarks came a day after GOP presidential hopeful Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker also said South Carolina should decide whether to allow the Confederate battle flag to fly above the capital grounds. Walker also said he would honor a request by Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, to reserve comment on whether the flag is a symbol of racism. He also said he would wait until after the funerals for the nine black people fatally shot Wednesday by a white man in a historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C. -- the incident that re-ignited the flag controversy. South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott, one of only two black U.S. senators, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he also would wait until after the funerals to comment. Flag supporters say it is a symbol of Confederate and southern heritage while critics argued it is a relic of white supremacy. In 2000, civil right activists got the flag removed from inside the South Carolina statehouse and from atop the capitol dome. However, the flag still flies on the capital grounds in Columbia, S.C. The controversy has since become an issue in presidential campaign politics, in large part because South Carolina is one of three early-voting states in which defeat or even a poor showing can end a White House bid. “I don't think you could say that the presence of one lunatic racist, who everybody in this country feels contempt for, and no one is defending, is somehow evidence of the people of South Carolina," Huckabee also said Sunday, regarding the church tragedy and alleged shooter Dylann Roof. "I don't personally display it anywhere, that's the issue for the people of South Carolina." He also said that voters don't want the presidential candidates to "weigh in on every little issue in all 50 states that might be an important issue to the people of those states, but it's not on the desk of the president." On Saturday, GOP presidential candidate and senior GOP South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the flag is “part of who we are,” while acknowledging it might be “time to revisit” the decision to allow it to fly over the state capitol grounds. The same day, another Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, touted what his state did in 2001 about the flag, a year after the South Carolina decision.
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Post by Admin on Jun 22, 2015 20:28:26 GMT
Gov. Nikki R. Haley and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina will call on Monday for the removal of a Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds, according to people briefed on their decisions. The white man accused of killing nine black people at a church in Charleston last week was seen brandishing a Confederate battle flag in widely circulated pictures, prompting renewed calls to banish the flag, which flies just outside the State House. The mass shooting has rocked the state, and many officials have labeled it a hate crime. In the days just after the massacre, Ms. Haley and Mr. Graham, both conservative Republicans, declined to take sides on the emotional issue, but said it was inevitable that the question would be reconsidered. “In light of what has happened, that has to be revisited because the shooter is so associated with the flag,” Mr. Graham said this weekend.
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Post by Admin on Jun 25, 2015 20:33:38 GMT
The largest Spanish-language broadcaster has decided to not air Donald Trump’s annual Miss USA pageant next month due to the presidential candidate’s recent comments on immigration. The network released this statement to EW: “Today the entertainment division of Univision Communications Inc. announced that it is ending the Company’s business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which is part-owned by Donald J. Trump, based on his recent, insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants. At Univision we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country. We will not be airing the Miss USA pageant on July 12 or working on any other projects tied to the Trump Organization.” When recently announcing his run for president, Trump called for a great wall to be built in order to stop illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” he said. “And some, I assume, are good people.” The Celebrity Apprentice star later accused the media of taking his comments out of context. “I am personally offended by the mainstream media’s attempt to distort my comments regarding Mexico and its great people,” he told reporters. “I have many successful business relationships with Mexican companies and employ, and am close friends with, many Mexican people … I do great with Latino voters. I employee so many Latinos, I have so many people working for me. The Latinos love Trump, and I Iove them.” Miss Universe is co-owned by Trump and NBC Universal. Univision added that they will continue to provide comprehensive news coverage of all the presidential candidates, including Trump, “to ensure our audience continues to have access to all points of view.”
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