Jeb Bush /October 29, 2015

Jeb Bush is in rebellion against his own candidacy to win the Republican nomination for President of the United States. He has seemingly been operating that way almost from the beginning. It's a quiet rebellion that’s been building while his public image has been sustained by an infusion of donor money, and most importantly the Bush family. Politics may be in Jeb Bush’s blood but it's been hidden during this campaign, and at this point he's losing the race.

The 2016 Republican campaign has, to this point, been mainly about impressions. It takes people nanoseconds to form an impression about someone, and that impression remains in our minds for a long time unless something happens to make it change. It’s becoming apparent that Jeb is not going to change. The impression he is leaving us with is one of weakness.

It begins at the beginning. If a candidate wants to win, picking up on the pulse of the electorate is critical. Voters want to like the candidate they support, and feel confident that he or she is up to the job. The good old Reagan likability factor. It's gotten very hard for Jeb Bush to score likability points dressing in boxy suits and rimless glasses that don’t look “today.” He doesn’t sound “today” in speeches or at the debates, and his interest in the job he supposedly wants seems forced. No matter how many people have been rooting for Jeb Bush to succeed, he now appears to lack one of the most critical success factors of all - the passionate desire to win.  

The Bush family is sacrosanct to millions of people. They are a political dynasty that has produced two presidents with a strong family matriarch behind the scenes. Perhaps they have pushed the youngest son too hard to enter the family business. There's a certain part of him that seems to say, "I'd take the job if it was handed to me on my terms." But Jeb Bush should know better than most that the presidency is one job that can't be handed to anyone. You have to work really hard to earn it.

2016 Political Headache

This political season has become deafening. It's almost impossible to hear any sanity come through amidst the extraordinary cacophony of noise.

The Freedom Caucus is spewing its demanding and extremist rants as Paul Ryan moves toward election as the new Speaker of the House. Then we can move on to the two top Republican candidates, Ben Carson and Donald Trump. These two men are winding their way around the country trying to skew inflammatory remarks as substance. What real political dialogue is being created by Carson and Trump that can benefit the American public?

Respect for the opposition has gone by the board. Minutes after Vice President Joe Biden announced that he wasn't going to run for president, Donald Trump could only repeatedly refer to him as "Biden" while addressing a crowd. Never once did Trump use his first name or title, which happens to be vice president of the United States.

While Biden closed his chapter with style and a comment about the importance of working together, Trump went on to say he couldn't wait to go against Hillary. The tone in which his words were spoken was like that of a hungry lion looking for fresh meat. 

And the Benghazi hearings. Whether you like Former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton or not, watching and listening to the hearings reminded me of one of the darkest moments in political history - the McCarthy hearings. Yesterday's hearing was a witch hunt that showed the worst of the Republican party.

We deserve so much more in a presidential race. Which of the candidates running for president of the United States is leading the way to bring out the best in all of us and in our country? 

As one young voter recently said to me, "Is this the best we can do?" 

Hillary and Carly - Two Women As 2016 Presidential Candidates

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Carly Fiorina appeared on their respective presidential debate stages surrounded by men. They represented their gender simply by being there, but their presence as women said much more. It's the first time two women, despite their vast political differences, have been front and center in the same year as presidential candidates.

It's an image that was impossible not to see, but one that’s all too familiar to successful businesswomen who have had no choice but to adapt to being the only woman in rooms filled with men in male dominated professions. Clinton and Fiorina are the products of those kinds of backgrounds.

For years strong women have been viewed as threatening by many men. The psychology of that thinking has been studied, reviewed, and studied again. Strength alone, that attribute viewed as a golden commodity in men, has blunted many a female career. But it seems we’ve reached an important turning point. While Clinton is today's Democratic frontrunner and Fioina is trailing in the Republican race, each woman is being taken seriously by their challengers (Trump aside) and the public, creating a landmark in its own right. 

Watching Fiorina at the Republican debates showed a woman who had learned her presentation skills well as she climbed the corporate ladder reaching CEO status at Hewlett-Packard. She knew how to firmly and clearly deliver her thoughts.

But Fiorina’s thoughts regarding women's issues struck a raw nerve with many women and cannot be disregarded. Fiorina stated that paid maternity leave should be left up to the private sector to decide, not the government. Reality check. If businesses had been providing maternity leave all along, there would have been no need for the government to get involved. Her attacks on a woman's right to choose and factually incorrect statements about Planned Parenthood showed a woman who forgot the importance of the word choice for women in the entire matter.

At the first Democratic presidential debate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came off as a smart, self-assured woman comfortable in her own skin. She has been a strong supporter of women over the years, but it has surprisingly taken her until this point to bring women’s issues to the forefront of her campaign. Family leave and work-life balance now have a formal candidate champion. It’s about time.

The fact that it has taken until 2015-16 to have two women running for president at the same time speaks to the gender bias that has been a part of our political system since our country was founded. We have a long way to go to reach any kind of parity in U. S. politics. Europe has set the bar for strong women in positions of political leadership showcasing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 2016 presidential election will test whether the United States is ready to do the same.

The 2016 Presidential Campaign and Our Kids - The Beginning

Photo by © Alinso/Dreamstime.com

As the Democrats are about to square off in their first debate, the Republican presidential candidates have been squaring off since day one. Polls are tracking their appeal to voters, their approval or disapproval of each candidate, and their likability. The one thing they haven't been tracking is the affect the candidates are having on young people, from the very young to those about to reach voting age.

The too often outrageous comments made by Donald Trump are followed by a different kind of outrageous by Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, with anger visibly showing in Ted Cruz and verbally building in Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. We're all taking notice and forming our own opinions, but so are our kids. 

Any child old enough to view a screen, hold a phone or have access to a computer can hear and see our candidates as well. A Harvard study, “Inferring Character From Faces,” was published last year showing that children as young as three years old tend to judge an individual's character traits such as trustworthiness and competence simply by looking at a face, and it doesn't change much as they get older. They just hear more.

Those who are freshman in high school this year will become first time voters in the 2020 presidential election. They too are listening, watching and reading all the time while soaking up the winds of all going on around them right now, let alone what will take place in the next four years. Their path to learning about politics will be paved by this campaign and the eventual winner in 2016.

Do we really want our kids to learn that the way you get to be President of the United States, the highest political office in the land, is by bullying, bigotry, prejudice, sexism and anger? 

Think big sandbox. 

Think role models.