TOO BAD JEB BUSH DOESN'T KNOW REAGAN'S SECRET

I know something right now that Jeb Bush doesn't know. I know he made the biggest political blunder of his life when he decided not to intervene and save Terri Schiavo from starving. How can it be that I, a pastor of an inner-city church, thousands of miles from Florida, have knowledge about this that Jeb doesn't have? Simple - I know an old Baptist deacon, and Jeb doesn't.

My old friend is named "Mack." He fought in World War II. When I was 13, he took me to a Baptist church for the first time. I was the boy next door. I became a Baptist preacher as a result of going to church with Mack and his family back in the fifties. His wife died a few years ago and Mack moved back to Vernon, Texas. I call him once a week just to chat. He turned 88 last Friday.

Mack is my weather vane. Whatever he says is what the American people think - in their hearts. He's way more accurate than any CBS poll, because the wording of polls often confuses people. You never get a confused answer from Mack. "Nope, Jeb Bush was wrong. He'll never be President if he doesn't find some way to save that girl." And that is exactly what will happen, because Mack is never wrong - ever - when it comes to knowing what the average American thinks deep down inside.

That's how I know something Jeb Bush doesn't know. See, Jeb has great strategists, genius politicos, the finest advisors money can buy. But he doesn't have Mack - or anybody like him.

That was President Reagan's secret, you know. When Reagan was a young man, he spent a few hours every week in a barber shop in Dixon, Illinois. With an actor's imagination, Reagan was later able to transport himself back to that Dixon barber shop. And in his mind he would ask the old men, Baptist deacons, Sunday School superintendents, gas station owners, druggists - the old men of that small town in the heartland - what they thought he should do. "Fellas, what do you think I ought to do about Terri Schiavo?" Reagan would have asked the old men in the barber shop of his actor's vision. They never let him down - not on Berkeley,  not on Grenada, not on Libya, not on Reykjavik - never! No one ever quite figured out how he always seemed to know what the people in the heart of America wanted him to do. That was Reagan's secret.

But, you see, Jeb Bush was raised a little too high-toned to hang around some old men at a barber shop. He probably had his dad's hair stylist give him a trim now and then. Trust me, a hair stylist is not the same as an old-time barber, and George H. W. Bush, his dad, is not the same as the old men in Reagan's boyhood barber shop. Been in Washington too long. Remember, his dad was the son of a Senator.

I wish Jeb Bush knew a couple of old Southern Baptist deacons - men in their mid-eighties - World War II guys. Just a couple of old Baptist deacons, retired druggists, or gas station owners. There must be a lot of old guys like that up in Jacksonville. He could call Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist there. He could say, "Dr. Vines, I need a couple of real old retired deacons, the older the better. Need 'em just to talk things over once in a while."

It must be old men, remember. Women have a way of being swayed by the sentiment of a twisted poll or slanted news story.

What would those old men tell him? Why, I already know, because I talked to my friend Mack, in Vernon, Texas today. The old men would tell him, "Jeb, get in there and save that girl. Do whatever it takes." That's what a World War II guy would tell Jeb Bush. And if he listened to an old man like that, he'd be a front-runner for President in 2008. The old man would not be fooled by polls. He'd tell Jeb Bush what the Americans really think in their hearts. They'd say, "Yep, that's the way Grandpa would do it. I'm glad there's still somebody around like him." And the red states would turn to crimson - for Jeb.

If he listens to guys like Karl Rove and the "poll watchers" you can kiss him goodbye. He will never again play a major role in politics. Too bad Jeb doesn't know Reagan's secret. That's why he won't send in the National Guard - as Reagan (and Mack) would. And that's why, unlike Reagan, he will never be President.

CLICK HERE TO TELL JEB BUSH THAT REAGAN
WOULD SEND IN THE NATIONAL GUARD.  
JEB BUSH'S E-MAIL IS JEB.BUSH@MYFLORIDA.COM

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