re: #185 goddamnedfrank

I want Jeb (and even Romney) to run simply because the debates will rip the scab off the GOP Civil War. They’ll be attacked vociferously, and attack back in kind. The Party’s racial, revanchist, homophobic and class animus will be on display like never before. Whoever comes out on top will end up being damaged, having either permanently staked themselves to abjectly hateful positions or alienated the so-con religious right.

That would be a two-fer: high quality entertainment combined with a necessary exposure of the rot that festers within the GOP.

Unfortunately, the damage from this kind of primary doesn’t really seem to stick in the general as well as it should.

E.g., the Romney etch-a-sketch campaign in the general.

Edited to add: It’s noteworthy that one of the best anti-Romney ads of the 2012 election, “When Mitt Romney came to town”, attacked Romney from the left on economic issues and was put out by a Republican. Most Democrats don’t have the guts to do this.