Jeb Bush published a little op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today and it’s titled ‘Capitalism and the Right to Rise.’

But let’s be honest, it’s real title is ‘Don’t Worry That Romney Is a Tool, I’ll Be Running for President in 2016 and You’ll Get the Guy You Really Want.’

The subtitle is ‘Just Let Obama Win, But Don’t Make It Look Like You’re Letting Obama Win.’

To paraphrase Han Solo from Return of the Jedi (which was originally going to be titled Revenge of the Jedi – I know this because some of the first toys that came out between Empire and Jedi had the first draft of the title on them), ‘I don’t know… campaign casual.’

But seriously. This op-ed is hilarious. Jeb might as well be telling Republicans ‘this current field of GOP candidates is so stupid and I’m so awesome, so stay unengaged and uninspired this election season so that Obama will win and there won’t be an incumbent when I run in 2016.’

Or not.

Actually, just go ahead and target teachers who are trying to register young people to vote and pretend this isn’t about partisan politics.

Challenge for Iowa, I mean.

Romney, I mean.

So far, he appears to have been discreetly pulling a McCain, i.e., skipping the Iowa caucuses. Discreetly because he’s still putting resources and staff into Iowa, but just a fraction of what invested in Hawkeye state four years ago.

Like McCain, he says New Hampshire as being where he can really shine and as acting as his electoral firewall.

But he’s looking at a couple of issues.

On the defensive side, the ‘anyone but Romney’ vote just isn’t going away. In a multi-candidate race, Romney’s consistently been hanging around 20%. But that’s been more or less enough so far, so his staff aren’t panicking. But they’ve also got to be thinking that his New Hampshire firewall could start looking a lot more flammable if someone not Romney grabbed real momentum coming out of Iowa. Even a narrower than expected victory in New Hampshire could see his might fortress turn into a collapsing house of cards.

On the offensive side, they’re thinking, ‘we don’t really want to drag this out.’ Iowa could be a chance to finish this. I suspect that Romney’s campaign has the best organizational structure of any GOP candidate. He won’t win Iowa based on love, affection, nor on any real desire to see him be president. But he might win based on tactics and organizational discipline. And if he does, he probably has things wrapped up. If he loses Iowa, but wins New Hampshire handily, things are probably still pretty well in hand for the Romney campaign, but they’ll still have to spend precious television dollars in places like Florida. Money they could stash away with a double whammy in Iowa and New Hampshire.

I don’t pretend to know which way they’ll go, but I can guarantee they are wondering whether to continue ceding Iowa, bar a token effort.

Alan Grayson was probably never going to win re-election in 2010. It just wasn’t the year for it. His opponent was a long time political institution (even if he’d been out of politics for a while), not visibly toxic, and with deep fundraising ties. In other words, an acceptable, well funded Republican in a swing district in a Republican wave election.

But, let’s be honest. It didn’t have to be as bad a defeat as it was.

Grayson simply refused to run a campaign suited for central Florida.

No one is saying he should have given up his principles or ceased to be a fiery advocate.

But some of his issues were more in tune with the district than others. Somehow, those issues (his Ron Paul-like mistrust of the Fed, I suspect, would have played surprisingly well) never got aired but those were not so in tune with the district (constant criticism of military actions in Afghanistan in a heavily military district, for example; while supporting a draw down from Afghanistan might have polled well, nothing that sounds even remotely like criticism of the military would) were a lot more visible.

At present, Grayson is angling to run for what will presumably be a new, swing district in central Florida (probably with a large Puerto Rican population).

He doesn’t appear to have learned any lessons.

In my inbox are appeals on his behalf from – get this – Ralph Nader.

Not only will this kind of effort not win friends from swing voters, a lot of dyed in the wool Florida Democrats are still a little miffed at Nader about 2000. This is the kind of campaign that could cause a former Congressman, with strong ties to the  base Democratic vote to actually lose a primary, nevermind a general election.

I liked Grayson’s voice in the House. He didn’t win a lot of issues, but he never let up on reminding Congress of its obligations to fairness and justice. We need voices like that. But unless something changes, that voice isn’t going to his.

Rick Scott’s spokesman makes a cheap and pathetic effort to explain away how the Governor of Florida, Rick Scott (R-Medicarescamartist) didn’t seem to know what Tampa Bay was.