Chris Jepson: Place your bets now

“Is the head dead yet? You know, the boys in the newsroom got a running bet.” – Don Henley in “Dirty Laundry”

The Republican presidential nominating process is like watching a train wreck in real time. It’s horrible, but please for heaven’s sake, “Show me more!” I am reminded of watching Saturday afternoon horror movies as a child. You’d sit on the edge of your seat, trembling in anticipation and then some oozing ghoulish monster jumps out of the darkness and you fall back, frightened with fingers splayed-open over your eyes. It’s horrible but show me more.

If you had told me that 90 days before the Iowa caucuses, Jeb Bush would be polling at a 7 percent level of national support within the Republican electorate, I’d have said, “No way!” Yet that is exactly where he finds himself.

Jeb’s polling and standing within the GOP is such that betting pools are being formed on when he announces he is no longer a candidate. People are betting that he pulls out this month. I am reminded of that Don Henley classic, “Is the head dead yet? You know, the boys in the newsroom got a running bet.” Is Jeb Bush’s campaign so moribund, so dead in the water that it’s just a matter of time until such fact becomes reality?

I attended parties in 2005 and politics, of course, became a topic of conversation. I can be forgiving. No one is perfect. Mistakes are made, errors in judgment. Who among us has not made a mistake or two in their lives? So you voted for George Bush in 2000, but please, don’t tell me you supported him in 2004. You know you’re dealing with the serious drinkers of Kool-Aid, those who voted for Bush 43 in 2004. What can they possibly say? Ur, excuse me I left my brain at the door.

People argue that Trump will put in place a foreign policy that’ll make America No. 1 in the world again. When pressed, they argue Trump is so erratic (a positive?) that our foreign adversaries won’t know when Trump is just going to up and bomb ’em. It’s hard to respond to such reasoning but evidently such “logic” appeals to Republicans.

For a black man to become a favorite of the Republican electorate, well, Ben Carson is just made to order. Having lived on food stamps in public housing, having been assisted by Affirmative Action and Pell Grants, Dr. Carson now deplores such “help” as fostering dependency on the government. If it wasn’t so hypocritical, we’d all be laughing.

Dr. Carson says, “Economics is not brain surgery.” No, it isn’t. And being a brain surgeon doesn’t mean you know diddly–squat about anything else. Dr. Carson is the poster child for not “opening your mouth about things you clearly don’t understand.” He’s the perfect Republican candidate in that regard.

I ask folks all the time, “Who do you think is going to get the Republican nomination?” I view a Kasich/Rubio ticket as being competitive (puts Ohio and Florida in play) in the general election but Kasich may as well pack his bags, it’s over for his candidacy. He’s not sufficiently goofy-enough to win the Republican primaries.

When all is said and done, will Republicans come around to Jeb Bush? When (if?) Trump and Carson flame-out, will Mr. Bush pick-up the mantle of “thoughtful” conservatism? I think not.

In today’s Republican Party “thoughtful conservatism” is an oxymoron. What’s that running bet?