Finneran: On Jeb! And The Donald

Friday, February 26, 2016

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

So much for the Bush political dynasty, dead from natural causes. Date of death was February 21st, 2016, preceded by a lengthy struggle against multiple ailments.

O death, where is thy sting? I find the sting in Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times titled “Escape from Bushworld”—

She writes--“The country is now aflame with anger and disgust about politicians and bankers who conned trusting Americans and never got punished for it. That fury has led to the rise of wildly improbable candidates in both parties. As the Bush dynasty falls, it must watch in horror knowing that it is responsible for the rise of Trump.”

It’s hard to quarrel with Ms. Dowd’s assessment. The presidency of George W. Bush was not a sturdy sustained success. Republicans betrayed their core principles, mouthing lip service but diving in the political tank. Spending was out of control. Deficits raged. Trust and confidence faded. Swagger was not persuasive. And Iraq, based upon the early strategy of a “light footprint”, was the most costly mistake of all. Roses were not strewn in the advancing footsteps of our soldiers. The “surge”, though successful, came awfully late, much too late to offset the unforgiveable dirty politics of Move.On.org and other political hypocrites. Aided and abetted by a grossly biased media, the country became badly, perhaps permanently, divided.

Keep in mind that such division was already lurking in the immediate aftermath of the Bush v. Gore presidential campaign and court decisions. Ironically that division ended, for a time, in the days and weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. “W.” would have had to be a flawless President in order to maintain that extraordinary calamity-induced unity throughout his term. But he, like all Presidents, is a flawed being. So too his many erstwhile politically ambitious opponents. As the saying goes— “mistakes were made”. Ya’ think?

From reckless deficits to reckless war plans we can jump to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the housing crisis, another gift to ordinary Americans brought to you by both political parties. Here we learned of heedless valuations, absurd lending, and falsified credit and employment histories, all polished up by supposedly sophisticated credit rating agencies. The frosting on the cake came when rubes like us discovered that multi-million dollar bonuses were paid to people who belong in jail. “Too big to fail”, my ass. They should have let this gilded group of Ivy League Wall Street phonies crash and burn. Their scandal was worse than Bernie Madoff’s scam. At least he did not rip off millions of taxpayers. And he sits in jail. Has anyone from Fannie, Freddie, or the credit rating agencies who sprayed perfume all over the housing garbage gone to jail? It’s no wonder that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are seen as refreshing antidotes to the status quo………………for many people it’s hard to contemplate that things could get any worse under their potential presidencies. It seems that a “let’s burn the whole place down” mentality has taken deep root in the Sanders and Trump campaigns.

Trump is the more interesting of the two. A significant chunk of Democratic activists has always been hard-charging to the extreme political left. Bernie’s campaign gives them an outlet for their passions and an opportunity to shove Hillary from her timid and “safe” political inclinations. The activists hate Clintonian triangulation but they hate Republicans even more. Come November they’ll be back in the fold, somewhat frustrated by Hillary but determined to propel her to victory.

Not so with Trump. At least not with the “unenrolled” or “independent” voters who have little allegiance to either party. Those independent voters don’t buy the talking points baloney that each party serves up. They prefer to evaluate the candidates as individuals. And any Republican presidential candidate, including Trump, needs to win an inordinate share of those independent voters in order to win the White House.

It’s with those independent voters that the Trump baggage is likely to take its toll---multiple marriages, multiple bankruptcies, multiple insults, multiple contradictions, boorish behavior, foul language, and a soon to be very hostile press can cause the Trump wave to break weakly on a far shore. The American people’s contempt for today’s reigning political correctness is strong and growing. Yet it’s likely not strong enough to overcome Trump’s shortcomings as a general election candidate.

Be sure to note that I have been wrong about Trump and Sanders this entire election season. Those two keep serving me and all the pundits and commentators plenty of humble pie. You would think that we might have learned by now………..

So in an attempt at redemption I’ll close with a bullseye observation---the “Bush dynasty” is as dead as Colonel Custer. It is at the morgue, soon to be interred. America has turned away and it seeks salvation elsewhere. It is well past time to pray.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.