The Crow's Nest

On March 10, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush went on six different Sunday news programs, including one Spanish language program. His new book had hit the shelves earlier in the week. In it, he outlines his new position on immigration, which is different than his old position.

News flash: it will probably change again.

You may have missed if you were lining up party supplies and booking last minute hotel rooms for some spring break debauchery. No worries, I will fill you in.

On MSNBC, each program’s host had a different take on what the book means. It of course boiled down to, “Is Jebby gonna make a run for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2016?” In an NBC exclusive interview with Florida boy Chuck Todd, Bush did not rule out running in 2016, saying that he would have to see how 2014’s midterm elections shook out before making a decision.

MSNBC commentators wondered if 2016 would be too soon for Jebby to run, given his last name being “tainted” due to his older brother Dubya’s tenure in the White House. I am no fan of W. Bush’s second term, but their father H.W. Bush was not that bad. I mean, the dude did everything: he was a World War II Navy veteran who trained in Florida, a U.S. Congressman from Texas, a United Nations ambassador and director of the CIA. And he was, of course, the vice president of the United States and then the 41st president of the United States. He even broke his campaign pledge of “no new taxes” because the country needed more revenue.

That last bit is important for you Republicans out there.

Do you know when the last Republican ticket (president or vice) did not include a Bush or Nixon? I will tell you so you do not have to put down the Crow’s Nest and go rummaging through the appendices of your American history textbooks. It was the campaign of the former Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, way back in the election in 1928.

For some more political trivia, the last Republican to win the presidency without carrying Florida was President Calvin Coolidge seeking his own full term in 1924. In ’28 the Democrats nominated a Catholic with New York Gov. Al Smith, which is why Florida went Republican and Hoover was elected.

In ’32, ’36, ’40, and ’44 Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency. FDR died in 1945 and Vice President Harry S. Truman ascended to the presidency and won his own full term in 1948. In 1952 the former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower was atop the Republican ticket with the junior senator from California, Richard Milhous Nixon, as his running mate. They ran for, and won, re-election in 1956. Nixon would go on to head the Republican ticket in 1960, ultimately losing to the Catholic junior senator from Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Florida voted for Ike in ’52 and ’56 and for Nixon in ’60.

Republican Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater got ramshackled by incumbent President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964 — no Nixon on the Republican ticket. Philosopher Billy Joel once said “Richard Nixon back again” in reference to Nixon’s victories in 1968 and ’72. Florida went for “Tricky Dick” in both. In the wake of Watergate, the former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, won the presidency in 1976 over incumbent President Gerald Ford.

In 1980 former California Gov. Ronald Reagan trounced Carter. Guess who Reagan’s vice was? George H.W. Bush. The Reagan Bush ticket won in another landside in 1984. H.W. went on to head the Republican ticket in 1988 and won. He was not so lucky in 1992 when he lost to Arkansas Gov. William Jefferson Clinton. Florida voted Republican in all four elections H.W. Bush was on the ballot.

Clinton went on to win re-election in 1996 against senior Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, who had Jack Kemp, the former Buffalo Bills quarterback, Congressman from western New York and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary as his vice presidential nominee.

In 2000, Vice President Albert Gore Jr. ran against Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The country waited several weeks as the results from Florida were recounted. In early December, the Supreme Court of the United States stole the election for Bush by declaring Bush “won” Florida. Dubya won re-election in 2004 over junior Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, this time winning Florida outright.

In 2008 Illinois junior Sen. Barack Hussein Obama defeated senior Arizona Sen. John McCain. In 2012 President Obama was re-elected over former Massachusetts Gov. Willard “Mitt” Romney. In both ’08 and ’12, there was no Bush on the Republican ticket. Obama also carried Florida in these elections, a feat no Democrat had accomplished since FDR. During the 2012 cycle Jeb Bush said he would not run, but he has since changed his tune.

It has been 85 years since a Republican ticket without a Nixon or Bush was elected to the Presidency and 89 years since a Republican was elected without carrying Florida. Despite the “tainted” Bush name in countrywide politics, and in Florida for that matter, Jebby maybe the best chance for the party of Lincoln to recapture residency in the White House.