Jeb Bush says he’s seriously thinking about deciding whether or not he wants to try to become president. (cc photo: World Affairs Council of Philadelphia)
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he sort of could be running for the Republican presidential nomination. Of course, that drew substantial media attention.
Reporters looked at his potential strengths: “Hispanics. He’s fluent in Spanish and married to a Mexican American,” ABC‘s Jonathan Karl (World News Tonight, 12/16/14) told viewers, adding that he “would enter the race as a front-runner for the Republican nomination.”
It is not hard to lead a race that no one else has joined. The Washington Post‘s Karen Tumulty (12/16/14) was making the same point:
That instantly put the former Florida governor at the head of the pack chasing the 2016 Republican nomination.
Another Post article determined that Bush’s announcement was “thrusting him to the front of the pack.” The front of a pack of potential maybes! How exciting.
Analysts note that it would be good for Hillary Clinton if people who run against her are unable to beat her.
Wasting time covering the presidential race right now isn’t just confined to the Republican field, though. During an ABC This Week (12/14/14) roundtable, radio host Michael Smerconish offer this insight on a possible Elizabeth Warren/Hillary Clinton race:
I use a prize-fighting analogy. I think that Secretary Clinton needs a tune-up, she doesn’t need a main event. Senator Warren is a main event. Senator Warren, I think, poses a lethal challenge to Secretary Clinton in a primary and caucus process. And what she needs, meaning Secretary Clinton, is a Bernie Sanders. Elizabeth Warren is a real problem.
That manages to be both uninformative and anti-democratic.
Or consider the insights listeners gleaned from this NPR interview host Steve Inskeep conducted with Warren (Morning Edition, 12/15/14):
INSKEEP: Sen. Warren, as you must know, that even as you were fighting over this in the Senate, there was a group called Ready for Warren that wants you to run for president, that released a letter signed by more than 300 people, who describe themselves as former Obama campaign workers and staffers and aides. They want you to run. What do you say to them?
WARREN: I’m, I’m not running for president. That’s not what we’re doing. We had a really important fight in the United States Congress just this past week. And I’m putting all my energy into that fight and to what happens after this.
INSKEEP: Would you tell these independent groups, “Give it up!” You’re just never going to run.
WARREN: I told them, “I’m not running for president.”
INSKEEP: You’re putting that in the present tense, though. Are you never going to run?
WARREN: I am not running for president.
INSKEEP: You’re not putting a “never” on that.
WARREN: I am not running for president. You want me to put an exclamation point at the end?
Thanks for taking Morning Edition to task. Stay on them since their broadcasts go all over the country.
The Bookie Junkies are salivating over the 2016 Horse Race, and they are trying to hobble the front runners now so they can ‘show how (un)intelligent they are. My bets will be on Nate Silver calling the winners, not this loser in the article.