Hey, Floridians! What's your opinion on this? Was Jeb popular?

[raccoon]

"In January 2007, after eight years in office, Jeb Bush left the governorship of Florida as one of the most popular executives in the state’s history.1 "

1. Abby Goodnough, "Jeb Bush Ponders Future, Not Knowing What it Holds," New York Times, January 2, 2007.

http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1065.html

[QC]

1. He was over 60% when he left office, so yeah, I guess he was popular.

Now might be a different story, though, as the chickens come home to roost.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. The Republicans and conservatives rabidly loved him. The minority (including me) despised him.

Unlike the current Republican governor, Charlie Crist, there was little to no crossover appeal. He was an extremely polarizing figure. Unfortunately, given that the Republicans dominated the legislature, it gave the appearance that he was beloved and popular.

Moderates and politically unastute people simply saw him as being more intelligent and well spoken than his brother, but didn't delve deeper into the serious damage the man did as governor.

We're talking about a governor whose mantra was to privitize everything in Florida government to his cronies with little or no oversight, a governor who actually once admitted he had absolutely nothing to offer African-Americans, a governor who was so easily swayed by a notorious polluter's $190,000 in donations that he did an about face and allowed them to build a plant on the state's most pristine river, a man who once gave a speech how he dreams of having empty and useless government buildings in Tallahassee, a man who once successfully lobbied for the repeal of Florida's only progressive tax (that bascially affected only those with $500,000 or more in intangible investments)by calling it "insidious", a man who once joked he had a "devious plan" to destroy a popular voter approved class size amendment, and a man who was a signator to the Project for the New American Century--the braintrust that eventually sent us to war in Iraq.

The man was just a horrible, horrible, horrible governor and person in general. Nasty, partisan, crony capitalist. This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but I believe it 100%: We are lucky that it was George W. who got elected and not Jeb because as damaged as we are right now, the damage we would have suffered under President Jeb would be tenfold. Lawton Chiles potentially saved this country by defeating Jeb during his first run in 1994.

[YDogg]

4. i concur

[el_bryanto]

9. yeah pretty much

I think you are right about Jeb doing more damage as president as well.

Bryant

[DrDan]

3. yeah - that might be true

he was riding that bush name. And left before the significant drop in popularity for the bush family.

[Mika]

5. The SOB lives a few blocks from me.

I give him the single finger salute every time I see him jogging around the local golf course where my cycling group rides. We loop around the course so I get a chance to give him this salute about a half dozen times twice a week (when he's in town).

[Bill219]

8. My mother in law...

Used to live in Tallahassee and says there are rumors that Jeb has cheated with his maid

Does anyone know anything about this rumor?

[SteppingRazor]

6. It's a matter of historical record, not opinion, that he was popular when he left office. However...

I question people (Joe Scarborough immediately springs to mind) who maintain that Jeb is popular in Florida to this day. I haven't seen any recent approval polls of the man, but I sincerely doubt they'd be very high. That said, this is certainly opinion, not fact. But I really think that Bush fatigue, coupled with the complete collapse of Florida's economy mainly due to Jeb's unsustainable tax structure, has done a lot to chip away at that.

[flvegan]

7. Once the smoke started to clear after he left office, his popularity has gone downhill.

Yet, idiots we are, we elected another R to the position.