Jeb! - Punctuation and Politics

cornflake · Jun 15, 2015

I don't know how to make a poll. That said, Jeb Bush formally announced his poorly-non-announced campaign the other day, with the festive logo: Jeb!

Presumably using just his first name to distance himself from his brother's ~~horrifying, sucktastic, disastrous embarassment of a stolen~~ somewhat controversial presidency, whatever pr or marketing team he's got decided to add the exclamation point.

Why? Good decision? Bad decision? I dunno about you, but I'm fascinated. I mean, it's not like there are a lot of Jebs running around he needed to differentiate from. Also, btw, what is with the republican tendency toward weirdly shortening/abbreviating/whatever names? Mitt? Jeb? Rand?

ETA : I made a poll! You can vote for more than one option, like Bushes!

robeiae · Jun 15, 2015

Clinton's 2008 campaign was "Hillary," no? I think she was the only Hillary running for President then. I'm not sure I get the fascination. He goes by "Jeb," his birth name is "John." The others? I don't know that the use of "Mitt" and "Rand" have anything to do with them being Republicans. Al Gore's given name is Albert. Bill Clinton's is William.

cornflake · Jun 15, 2015

robeiae said:
Clinton's 2008 campaign was "Hillary," no? I think she was the only Hillary running for President then. I'm not sure I get the fascination. He goes by "Jeb," his birth name is "John." The others? I don't know that the use of "Mitt" and "Rand" have anything to do with them being Republicans. Al Gore's given name is Albert. Bill Clinton's is William.

It was "Hillary," yes, not "Hillary!" It's the punctuation choice that's amusing me, not the first name. Bill is the common nickname for William. Al is the common diminutive of Albert. Have you ever run into anyone irl who goes by Mitt, Jeb or Rand?

CoffeeBeans · Jun 15, 2015

The tweets were particularly excellent when the logo was revealed.

More here

clintl · Jun 15, 2015

I don't really care what they go by - but Mitt is Romney's middle name, and lots of people go by their middle names. It's not as if his real first name is much better (Willard).

And Rand I can see as logical shortening of Paul's first name, Randal - although there's a bit of a creepiness factor to it, too.

Jeb, though, is hard to figure out - although his actual initials are JEB - so maybe that's where it comes from.

Anyway, all campaign advertising is some what absurd, so I'm not reading much into it. Except maybe Jeb is under the erroneous impression that punctuation creates excitement.

Amadan · Jun 15, 2015

I think mostly they wanted to pull attention away from "Bush."

robeiae · Jun 15, 2015

cornflake said:
It was "Hillary," yes, not "Hillary!" It's the punctuation choice that's amusing me, not the first name.

I was replying to this part of your post:

I mean, it's not like there are a lot of Jebs running around he needed to differentiate from.

Using a first name for a campaign in just not all that unusual.

As to the exclamation point, his campaigns in Florida for governor used them in the same way: Jeb!

And I'm pretty sure he wasn't the first to do this.

Bill is the common nickname for William. Al is the common diminutive of Albert. Have you ever run into anyone irl who goes by Mitt, Jeb or Rand?

Yes to the first two, no to the last (aside from the actual Rand Paul). But again, I don't see the link to their being republicans.

ColoradoGuy · Jun 15, 2015

I think it's kind of funny because noted Leftie (and very good essayist) Charlie Pierce at Esquire has been calling him Jeb! for months.

Pierce has an entire vocabulary of nicknames he uses. For example, he never refers to Scott Walker by anything other than "the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin."

clintl · Jun 15, 2015

robeiae said:
As to the exclamation point, his campaigns in Florida for governor used them in the same way: Jeb!

Yeah. It's looking less like a way to distance himself from his last name, and more like not being creative enough to try something new.

ColoradoGuy · Jun 15, 2015

nighttimer · Jun 15, 2015

Jeb! was the compromise between "Heb!" and "WTF?"

Maze Runner · Jun 15, 2015

This is not one of the Georges, not Prescott or even Barbara. This is Jeb! Clearly new and improved, as far as Bushes go.

ColoradoGuy · Jun 15, 2015

nighttimer said:
Jeb! was the compromise between "Heb!" and "WTF?"

Or "Bush Ready?"

robeiae · Jun 15, 2015

clintl said:
Yeah. It's looking less like a way to distance himself from his last name, and more like not being creative enough to try something new.

Plus, he might still have a closet full of "Jeb!" buttons, banners, and posters from those past campaigns.

Seriously though, creative? Please. Hillary Clinton has gone from "Hillary 2008" to "Clinton 2016." This isn't about creativity, it's just name recognition.

Vince524 · Jun 15, 2015

I've never seen such a big deal being made over the use of a exclamation point.

Diana Hignutt · Jun 15, 2015

Do they really think the "Jeb! versus Hillary" thing will make us forget that our choices will be another Bush and another Clinton?

Vince524 · Jun 15, 2015

Diana Hignutt said:
Do they really think the "Jeb! versus Hillary" thing will make us forget that our choices will be another Bush and another Clinton?

Probably.

Signed, Vince!

MrCasperTom · Jun 15, 2015

Jeb is slang for penis in some parts of the country over here (UK).

From what I know the campaign is pretty fitting.

Zoombie · Jun 15, 2015

Hey, at least he's excited about the run.

Enthusiasm is nice, right?

nighttimer · Jun 15, 2015

MrCasperTom said:
Jeb is slang for penis in some parts of the country over here (UK).

From what I know the campaign is pretty fitting.

Zoombie said:
Hey, at least he's excited about the run.

Enthusiasm is nice, right?

If MrCasperTom is giving it to us straight that "Jeb" is slang for penis, Jeb Bush's excitement could be a like a cobra spitting venom when it gets excited.

Do you really want any of it to get on you?

Gregg · Jun 15, 2015

A brilliant strategic move!
Now he won't have to worry about Scott! or Marco! stealing his thunder.................

Xelebes · Jun 15, 2015

nighttimer said:
If MrCasperTom is giving it to us straight that "Jeb" is slang for penis, Jeb Bush's excitement could be a like a cobra spitting venom when it gets excited.

Do you really want any of it to get on you?

Pairing it with "Bush" adds to the funny.

cornflake · Jun 15, 2015

Diana Hignutt said:
Do they really think the "Jeb! versus Hillary" thing will make us forget that our choices will be another Bush and another Clinton?

Except he's related to those people - she's only married to him.

Also, her name is Rodham. That drives me insane. I realize she's using Clinton, but she only ever did because of the lovely citizens of Arkansas.

Haggis · Jun 15, 2015

cornflake said:
Except he's related to those people - she's only married to him.

Also, her name is Rodham. That drives me insane. I realize she's using Clinton, but she only ever did because of the lovely citizens of Arkansas.

IIRC, during Bill's first presidential campaign, she was Hillary Clinton. Once he was elected, she was Hillary Rodham Clinton. Eventually, I don't remember quite when, she became Hillary Clinton again. It's her name. She can do with it what she wants. Doesn't trouble me a bit.

She's always been white, though.

cornflake · Jun 15, 2015

Haggis said:
IIRC, during Bill's first presidential campaign, she was Hillary Clinton. Once he was elected, she was Hillary Rodham Clinton. Eventually, I don't remember quite when, she became Hillary Clinton again. It's her name. She can do with it what she wants. Doesn't trouble me a bit.

She's always been white, though.

She was Hillary Rodham, her actual name, until after he lost in Arkansas and apparently one of the issues with voters was her whole 'having a job and her own name' uppity-ness.

She then announced she'd use Clinton, like a good little Stepford wife from 1952, and so it remained until, yeah, there was nothing much to lose and she started using her own name again, if only in the middle. Now she's running, and apparently 'Merica hasn't evolved much in the past 40 years.

It is her name, but she only used his for political purposes; it's clearly nothing she would have done otherwise. Also, my parents would whack the crumbs right off me if they ever heard me refer to someone by a husband's name when I knew the person's own name.

Jeb! - Punctuation and Politics

Jeb! - What's with the exclamation point?

He wants you to know he's extra Jebby.

He's trying to differentiate between himself and regular Jeb.

Seriously, Jeb!

They thought "Jeb." looked too serious for such a fun-loving candidate.

Someone just couldn't live without punctuation and argued so much all the "Jeb" people in the room v

"Jeb?" while most realistic option, was also too realistic.

They didn't think "Mitt!" would work.

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