Remember when Tony Blair begged Labour supporters not to go for Jeremy Corbyn? Remember how well that turned out?
Yesterday in South Carolina, USA, George W. Bush did something not too dissimilar. He didn’t copy Blair’s ‘even if you hate me’ line. Instead, Dubya urged his party, which is seemingly hellbent on destroying itself, to go back to the future. He encouraged them to pick another Bush, namely his brother Jeb.
It seems like madness. Everybody knows that Jeb Bush’s candidacy has from the start been crippled by his name. Americans don’t want another Bush in the White House. Republicans may not be quite as hostile towards George W. as Labour grassroots supporters are towards Blair, but they don’t want to remember the President who brought them unsuccessful wars and an economic crisis. Last year Jeb tried to dodge the issue by rebranding himself as ‘Jeb!’, but that hasn’t worked.
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