Apparently, Laura Bush — and 43 himself — wanted Jeb Bush to run this time around. From the Herald-Tribune:
Former first lady Laura Bush wishes there were one more candidate in the Republican presidential primary: Jeb Bush.
Speaking to a sold-out Sarasota audience on Wednesday, Bush said she had hoped that her brother-in-law and former Florida governor would have jumped into the race this year.
Husband George W. Bush “and I wish he would,” Laura Bush said when asked if Jeb Bush will run for president someday. “We wanted him to this time.”
I like Jeb Bush, and I think he would have made a much better President than W, but the optics of another Bush would have been too great to overcome. We might as well change the name of the Republican Party to the Bush Party.
Sorry Jeb, politics isn't fair.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's hard to even be sorry. Jeb and George would've never been elected governors of their respective states if they hadn't been George H.W. Bush's sons. And their dad would never have been president had he not been Sen. Prescott Bush's son. And Prescott Bush would never have risen to prominence without the (self-made) wealth of his own father.
It's been three generations since a Bush rose to prominence purely through merit. Politics has been more than fair to the Bush clan.
(None of this is to suggest that I think that people shouldn't benefit from the hard work and even just plain dumb luck of their ancestors. Of course they do.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGeo HW "Poppy" Bush would never had been President if it were not for Ronald Reagan's big mistake. In being too nice of a guy, Reagan made Poppy his VP.
Without that, Poppy couldn't have been elected to congress again, much less anything else, regardless of his Pappy and Grandpap.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI will vote for Obama before I ever vote for another Bush. Under the iron-clad rule that the democrats always jack up by an order of magnitude whatever lameness the republicans do, it is the actions of the Bush family father and son that led directly to the appalling situation we are in. They paved the way, they were the watchmen who decided to nap on the job in one the most critical periods of our nation's history. They will not be forgiven.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBush fatigue. Let's move on.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMyKu:
Nope...no Jeb for me.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBush stains come right out when rinsed
with scalding hot TEA.
Bush fatigued.
Let's move on.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI love Laura for her dignity and grace. But she's a Democrat, for Heaven sake. That is hardly the sort of endorsement that would be needed to get me over the never-again hurdle regarding Bushes. (Yea, too bad -- if we had to have a second Bush -- that it wasn't Jeb.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusecapcha: one hit wonder
Yeah, and Laura Bush wanted Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court
Jeb Bush's time was in 2000...except that he couldn't even beat Lawton Chiles so he was out of the running then.
To the Bushes, all of them, each and every one, male and female, young and old, with all due respect: please shut up and go away
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJeb Bush would've been even worse than his brother on social issues. He was no more supportive of securing our border (thanks especially to his foreign-born, Latina wife), and on affirmative action, quotas and set-asides he was frickin' awful.
When California abolished affirmative action the state instituted a rule guaranteeing that the top 4% of any high school class would be admitted to the state's top colleges. In Texas, George W. Bush expanded that share to 10% - which just barely brought the number of minorities in state schools to where it was before affirmative action there was struck down by the courts, meaning that under the 10% rule Texas was still probably admitting unqualified students.
Jeb Bush's answer to "eliminating" AA? Guarantee spots in Florida colleges to the top 20% of each high school class - twice as many as Texas and 5 times as many as California, despite the fact that Texas and California had more minorities than Florida.
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An unsecured border, two costly, disastrous wars, an economic meltdown, and a trillion dollar bailout of the ones who caused it. I'd vote for Barack Obama sooner than I'd vote for another Bush. At least Obama doesn't have the audacity to pretend he's a conservative.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank goodness he didn't run. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Now the Bushes want a third time? Never Again! The only good thing that might have come from his running would be diluting the Romney RINO vote in the primaries. That might help counter what is presently happening to conservatives in the Republican primary.
Both Georges promised to be just like Reagan and then when they were given the reigns of power promptly turned out to be the predictable establishment Republicans they always had been, while at the same time making the party base all look like idiots having to defend their oafishness.
The Bushes have sullied the conservative brand and set back the conservative cause a decade or more.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOk, so now I don't have to feel bad about Jeb not running. I was kind of bummed for a while and for some reason her endorsement convinces me more than ever that we are better off without him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOK, so there are two people on earth who think that we haven't had enough Bushes in the White House. Behold! The world's tiniest minority.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTalk about political naivete. This country is all Bushed out. Though not his fault, Jeb is a no go not only this year but in 2016 and for that matter in 2020 and beyond.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree with most here, Jeb is not a movement conservative, more like a stricter welfare state care-taker in the Romney mold.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood grief, years out of DC and they're still tone deaf.
This nation will never elect a Bush to the presidency.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"another," of course.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBush fatigue...let's not revisit it.
It's time to move on.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse