Jeb Bush to Face CPAC Extremists

I cannot help by relish the thought of Jeb Bush having to face the crowd at the CPAC confab of "conservatives" - read white supremacists, religious fanatics, and others who claim to worship Christian values yet back policies that are the anti-thesis of the Gospel message.  As prior posts have indicated, I hold no love for Jebbie, but he looks down right sane compared to the CPAC crowd.  Politico looks at Jebbie's effort to minimize potential political damage as he goes to bow and genuflect to the ugliest elements of the GOP base.  Here are excerpts:

As political events go, it’s hard to find one more ill-suited for Jeb Bush than the Conservative Political Action Conference.

That’s why he’s bringing in supporters — some of them old George W. Bush White House hands — to cheer him on. He’s also looking to exploit CPAC’s speaking format. The former Florida governor is eschewing the traditional speech-making opportunity in favor of taking questions from Fox News host Sean Hannity, calculating that it will give him a better chance at making his case on the contentious issues where he is most at odds with attendees.

His brand of moderate conservatism is an awkward fit with CPAC’s ideologically strident audience. His political lineage is a sore spot for many attendees, particularly the younger and more libertarian-oriented. Then there’s Bush immigration reform efforts and support for Common Core education standards: Both are deal-breakers.

Unlike conservative favorites like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul who have mastered the art of tea party oratory, Bush’s speaking style is more subdued and less geared toward firing up a crowd. In response, his advisers have taken steps to pack the room with supporters — a Bush adviser said the campaign would be coordinating transportation for Washington, D.C.-area boosters who’d expressed interest in attending his Friday afternoon presentation.

A Bush aide said the decision to not give a speech was made over a month ago. Bypassing the traditional speech enables him to circumvent the potential embarrassment of delivering an address that could receive a lukewarm — or potentially worse — response from the audience. In 2013, Bush gave the CPAC keynote speech and struck a moderate tone, saying the Republican Party needed to embrace “inclusion and acceptance.” He received a muted reception.

He is also sensitive, they say, to being pushed too far to the right in the primary, which could complicate his general election prospects.

Bush’s CPAC strategy, however, isn’t without risks. In not giving a speech in a high-profile conservative arena, he is ceding the stage to other candidates whose addresses will be crafted for the purpose of exciting the CPAC faithful. Increasingly viewed as the frontrunner thanks to his prolific fundraising and high name ID, Bush may even find himself under attack from his potential rivals.

Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster who is helping to oversee the straw poll, said she expected Bush to finish behind candidates like Paul or Cruz, who has also been encouraging his backers to attend the conference. Even so, she argued, a middle-of-the- pack performance wouldn’t necessarily represent a defeat. Bush would be taken seriously by the crowd who would see him as a formidable “presidential candidate in a year when they want to win.”