Jeb, in desperation, plays the race card

Political analyst and Huffington Post contributor Earl Ofari Hutchinson sees the political calculation of Jeb Bush's racial stereotype remarks in South Carolina.

"GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush knew exactly what he was doing when he insulted African-American voters by alleging that the Democrats buy their votes with 'free stuff' . . . . Bush is wallowing in single digits in the polls and he needed some spark to get the attention and touch the nerve of Deep South white, conservative voters. . . ."

Without a careful reading of what Bush said, it would appear that he's trying to tell blacks that he will offer them hope and opportunity rather than demeaning 'free stuff."

But Hutchinson says that Bush is playing on an old racial stereotype of blacks being bought by Democrats with assistance programs.   In fact, as Hutchinson points out:  "The majority of the recipients of these programs have always been white seniors, retirees, women, and children, and white workers. But these programs have been artfully sold to many Americans as handouts to lazy, undeserving blacks, Hispanics and minorities."

This is the old political "Southern Strategy" of Richard Nixon to win the electoral vote block of southern and border states by playing on racial stereotypes.   Hutchinson concludes:

"So Bush knowingly played the race card in part to boost his faltering campaign, in greater part because the recent history of presidential elections have shown that a GOP candidate's only path to the White House is getting an overwhelming number of white voters in the South, the Heartland States, and the swing states. Bush shrewdly calculated that in his political insult."

Jeb Bush just sank a notch lower in my estimate.   Let's hope it was a momentary lapse into desperation over his 7% in the latest Fox News poll, which drops him to 6th place.   Surely the Bush family darling would not stoop to the low politics of race-baiting.

Would he?  Well . . . yes, he just did.   This was not an egregious gaffe.   This was a carefully crafted strategy.

This was the same Jeb Bush who, as a teen-ager in prep school, was so snobbish and self-righteous that he led a gang to chase down and forceably cut off the longish hair of a fellow student who dared to be different.   This was the same Jeb Bush who abused his power as governor of Florida (and as brother of the president) to go around federal court rulings to get congress to pass a special law to artificially prolong the life of the brain dead Teri Schiavo.  The same Gov. Jeb Bush who -- after Shiavo died anyway, and for no purpose other than vengeance -- initiated criminal charges against the woman's husband for trying to carry out her wishes not to be kept in such a vegetative state.  

Arrogance and stubborn self-righteousness are behind Jeb's genial smile and mild manner.    If Republicans want to nominate a tyrant or a religious zealot, let them at least choose one who is open and honest about it so the American people know what their choices are.  Jeb Bush has a dark side and a mean streak.   The more I see of him, the more I prefer his brother George -- and that's a very very low bar.

Ralph