In a way, it’s the political non-story of 2014, but definitely worth reporting, because what has long been predicted is now happening: the Washington Post reports that influential Republicans are now working to move to draft Jeb Bush to get him to jump into the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination sweepstakes.
Many of the Republican Party’s most powerful insiders and financiers have begun a behind-the-scenes campaign to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the 2016 presidential race, courting him and his intimates and starting talks on fundraising strategy.
Concerned that the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal has damaged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s political standing and alarmed by the steady rise of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), prominent donors, conservative leaders and longtime operatives say they consider Bush the GOP’s brightest hope to win back the White House.
And, indeed, suddenly pundits are impressed with Christie showing his mojo in a press conference seemingly celebrating a probe basically exonerating him from blame in Bridgegate. So what if it was a probe done by people he hired? Isn’t a report by a high priced lawyer exonerating him enough? Tainted…shmainted…it’s the conclusion that matters.
But these influential GOPers no doubt know 1)there’s a teenie weenie thing called a federal investigation going on and the feds aren’t being paid by Christie and will talk to a lot more people than the lawyers paid by Christie were paid talked to, and, 2)Christie is now a candidate with so much baggage that TSA may insist he stand in an inspection line before he delivers a speech, 3)he isn’t beloved by many conservatives who still consider him a traitor for working with President Obama during Hurricane Sandy.
Bush’s advisers insist that he is not actively exploring a candidacy and will not make a decision until at least the end of this year.
He’s taking the same position as Hillary Clinton. It’s good strategy.
But over the past few weeks, Bush has traveled the country delivering policy speeches, campaigning for Republicans ahead of the fall midterm elections, honing messages on income inequality and foreign policy, and cultivating ties with wealthy benefactors — all signals that he is considering a run.
Either that or he has a lot of free time and craves the spotlight.
Many if not most of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s major donors are reaching out to Bush and his confidants with phone calls, e-mails and invitations to meet, according to interviews with 30 senior Republicans. One bundler estimated that the “vast majority” of Romney’s top 100 donors would back Bush in a competitive nomination fight.
The reason: Bush, like Romney, is perceived as a “reasonable” more traditional conservative and less of a Tea Partier or Tea Party panderer.
“He’s the most desired candidate out there,” said another bundler, Brian Ballard, who sat on the national finance committees for Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008. “Everybody that I know is excited about it.”
But Bush, 61, would have serious vulnerabilities as a candidate. Out of public office for seven years, he has struggled in some appearances and has had difficulty navigating the Republican Party’s fault lines on immigration and other issues. A Bush candidacy also would test whether the nation still has a hangover from the George W. Bush administration.
And, yes, it could be that 2016 is Clinton Bush again.
However, there is one fact: Jeb Bush was a highly popular governor in Florida and to some he’s more akin to his father George H. W. Bush than to his brother GWB who in some ways seemed to want to be as distinct as possible from his former President Dad. He could face stiff opposition from Republicans who weren’t happy with either Bushes and want to move on.
If he enters the 2016, the political skills he’d need to woo unfriendly parts of the party and general electorate will test his skills as never before.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.