Jeb's Image According to SNL

This Saturday Night Live sketch sketch portrays Jeb in a very negative light just as they like to do with the majority of politicians they include in their skits. It displays the actor playing Jeb as being somewhat a of a man that does more agreeing with the ideas of others than thinking for himself. This is illustrated in the skit since he mostly just agrees with the actor that plays Paul Ryan.

I think that this skit also attempts to display the fact that Jeb claims that if he were to win any position in office that he would not want to have his last name assist him in being victorious. This was obvious when the actor who played Jeb said “we’re part of a whole new GOP. Now, when you think of the old GOP you probably think of George W. Bush” which is clearly trying to show that Jeb would be referring to the work of his brother as low quality and something that he would not want to associate with. Although Jeb has stated that he does not want to win an election based on his last name I also think that it is pretty obvious that he would not be that opposed to the work of his relatives. The writers of this skit were attempting to take Jeb’s words and make them stronger than he intended to show that it is absurd that he believes that his last name will not play a large role in his campaign.

In addition to this, this skit shows that Jeb Bush, along with other politicians as well, have a difficult time closing the age gap with the younger generation. This is one aspect in the skit that likely holds a little more truth than the other targeted areas. Jeb is 62 years old, and while he is not the oldest potential candidate he is not the youngest candidate either. If the general public were to adopt the mindset that Jeb is the old man who is not fit to run the country this would be very difficult for him to overcome; after all, this was one of the large reasons that John McCain had a fair amount of people in opposition of him.

I do not think that this skit will have a large impact on the image of Jeb Bush for a few small reasons. The first reason that this will not impact his image all that much is due to the fact that he is a fairly well known politician and that people are already aware of who his family is. The second reason is that it is on a show that simply makes jokes rather than truly informing people. Although SNL was able to negatively impact the image of Sarah Palin this is because she was not as well-known and people believed that what was said on the show was once said by Palin herself. Although it does attempt to push against what Jeb’s image is it is clear that it is not successful in influencing the public.