Was dudeabides right all along?

[Lyin' Steve]

Poor guy

[Ronnie]

Would the base come out to vote for Jeb after Trump humiliated him so thoroughly?

[Gustaf]

Would the base come out to vote for Jeb after Trump humiliated him so thoroughly?

I mean, if Jeb had somehow won he obviously wouldn't look so humiliated.

[Crumpets]

No, except in the sense of Trump being an imbecile. But that didn't exactly take exceptional analytic skills. Plus he basically called everybody except Bush and Rubio enough names that some would stick.

[Lief 🗽]

Who is dudeabides?

[Comrade Funk]

Who is dudeabides?

The Jeb! hack

[Bismarck]

No Rubio or Kasich. RIP Dudeabides.

[Horsemask]

dudeabides was never right.

[NOVA Green]

I would much rather see a reasonable and moderate Republican like Jeb on the ticket (Despite his toxic family name) than most of these clowns and poseurs we saw during the primary.

Not a big fan of the Bush clan, but still Jeb is so much more moderate and pragmatic than almost all of the crazies on the debate stage, where at least we could have real policy debates and not weird theatrics and disparagement of almost 80% of the American population, like we have seen in the form of the current Republican candidate.

If Jeb had been the Republican nominee, I would actually follow his policy statements, respect his points in the debates, and carefully consider my vote in November (Assuming the Dem is Hillary and not Bernie) and realize that he is not his brother, nor his father, but still has a major contribution to make to the national conversation, as his own man, and not immediately dismiss talking points based upon partisan or idealogical blinders just because of his last name.

[NOVA Green]

ok---- dropped out of the forum after the '08 elections, so I'm assuming y'all are talking about a fellow forum member.

Originally, I thought y'all were talking about Jeb Bush, hence my previous post.

[Fuzzy Bear]

He said that if Trump were the nominee, he'd openly support Clinton.  Let him log on to Atlas and endorse Hillary like he said he would.

I miss dudeabides; he's definitely needed here.

[NOVA Green]

He said that if Trump were the nominee, he'd openly support Clinton.  Let him log on to Atlas and endorse Hillary like he said he would.

I miss dudeabides; he's definitely needed here.

ok--- got it now.... ty!!!!

[Young Conservative]

No, Republicans should've voted for Cruz.

[Vosem]

Perhaps. Jeb was always a candidate that couldn't really win the Republican nomination, but he certainly would've been capable of pulling off a Trump-esque plurality win against divided opposition, and he might've had an easier time reuniting the party afterwards than Trump has had. But he was finished once Trump nuked his candidacy, and there was no sense in staying in the race at that point.

In the end, the only candidate who ran in the field this year who was actually capable of winning outright the nomination of the Republican Party was Marco Rubio. Of those who ran in 2016, Cruz or Kasich (or Huckabee, actually) might've been capable of doing it if the field had been somewhat different; the opposition to Trump and Bush (...and Paul) in the party is too deep-seated, Christie was too written-off by the voters he needed after Bridgegate, and none of the rest ran sufficiently serious campaigns, even though Walker and Carson held national leads at times. (It's tempting to say a serious campaign isn't necessary after Trump, of course, but we need to recognize that being able to exercise dominance over media coverage, as Trump did, and as for example Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the 2003 California recall, is its own form of serious campaign).

Trump and Cruz were capable of incomplete wins in the field we had -- and, indeed, Trump accomplished his.

[Lyin' Steve]

He said that if Trump were the nominee, he'd openly support Clinton.  Let him log on to Atlas and endorse Hillary like he said he would.

I miss dudeabides; he's definitely needed here.

Yeah dudeabides was very much the calm before the storm.
I remember when there was a hell of a lot to talk about during the early stages of the primary, tons of rumors and speculation and uncertainty and excitement, the floodgates of bad GE posters hadn't opened, partisanship was pretty minimal, and we all banded together to make fun of the one guy who posted a dissertation on every thread about how we should all vote for Jeb Bush.