Free Republic

Election years that have no incumbent president make for crowded Democrat and Republican primaries. Consequently, the quicker a Party settles on a nominee the quicker it can start to coalesce behind the person they want to put in the White House. When a potential candidate disqualifies himself early on, it is very helpful. Jeb Bush the former Governor of Florida has disqualified himself and therefore has become helpful to the Republican selection process. Bush has co-authored an opinion piece urging House Republicans to do Chuck Schumer’s bidding and pass an amnesty bill. Making baseless claims that adding as many as...

It's one of the more interesting what-ifs of the past few decades. What would have happened if both George W. and Jeb Bush had won their gubernatorial bids in 1994? Which brother would have run for President in 2000 against Al Gore? Late in George W. Bush's second presidential term, I asked his father this question. The senior Bush shrugged, waving off the hypothetical. "Who knows?" he replied. "Didn't happen." Then, after the briefest of pauses, the 41st President added, "If Jeb wants his shot, he should have it. He's done the work, been a governor--a very fine governor, I...

It's one of the more interesting what-ifs of the past few decades. What would have happened if both George W. and Jeb Bush had won their gubernatorial bids in 1994? Which brother would have run for President in 2000 against Al Gore? Late in George W. Bush's second presidential term, I asked his father this question. The senior Bush shrugged, waving off the hypothetical. "Who knows?" he replied. "Didn't happen." Then, after the briefest of pauses, the 41st President added, "If Jeb wants his shot, he should have it. He's done the work, been a governor--a very fine governor, I...

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) argued Wednesday that the United States should pass immigration reform because the U.S. economy needs the labor of young immigrants, and immigrants are “more fertile.” “Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans,” Bush said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to the Majority conference. “Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.” Bush said immigrants are an advantage that the United States has over China, Europe and Japan, which don’t have the same...

Former first lady Barbara Bush said her son George W. Bush should be the last in the family line of presidents, rejecting the idea of a White House run for her other son, Jeb Bush. “There are other people out there that are very qualified and we’ve had enough Bushes,” she told TODAY’s Matt Lauer on Thursday from inside her son's presidential library. When asked whether she expects Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, to make a presidential run, Mrs. Bush said there are many worthy candidates.

There are strong indications that Jeb Bush will be a candidate in 2016: http://todaynews.today.com/_news/2013/03/04/17179710-jeb-bush-i-wont-rule-out-2016-white-house-run-but-i-wont-declare-today?lite It also well known that Hillary Clinton is preparing to run in 2016. Did you know that there has been a Dole, Bush, or Clinton running for President or Vice-President (including primaries) since the year 1976, with the sole exception of the year 2012? That is a total of 9 Presidential elections - 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008! If either Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton is a candidate in 2016, then America will have officially become a banana republic, and the...

I have my problems with Jeb Bush, but this passage of his speech at CPAC is not one of them. "It is not a validation of our conservative principles if we can only point to the increasingly rare individual who overcomes adversity and succeeds in America," Bush said. "Here’s reality: if you’re fortunate enough to count yourself among the privileged, much of the rest of the nation is drowning. "In our country today, if you’re born poor, if your parents didn’t go to college, if you don’t know your father, if English isn’t spoken at home, then the odds are...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday that there is no Bush fatigue in America. Chris Wallace: Do you think there would be any Bush baggage? Do you think that would be a problem? Jeb Bush: No. I don’t think there is any Bush baggage at all. I love my brother. I’m proud of his accomplishments. I love my dad. I am proud to be a Bush. And, if I run for president, it’s not because there is something in my DNA that compels me to do it...

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has remained on the sidelines since his older brother left the White House with dismal ratings four years ago, has jumped back into the political fray this week with a new book, wall-to-wall television interviews and a round of public speaking engagements. His appearances mark a change in approach for Bush, 60, who has operated as more of a Republican elder statesman since leaving Tallahassee in 2007 but is now clearly considering a run for the White House.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he would strive to be like Lyndon Johnson, the Democrat famous for expanding the U.S. welfare state through the "Great Society," if he were elected president. According to the Miami Herald, Bush made those comments Wednesday night in San Antonio, Florida at Saint Leo University, while speaking about education, immigration, and energy policy. Bush did not address Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs, about which Ronald Reagan once famously quipped, "We had a war on poverty, and poverty won." Instead, he was referencing Johnson's mastery of the so-called sausage-making process in Congress....

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will speak for the first time at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a clear sign that he is mulling a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The American Conservative Union, which sponsors the conference, announced Tuesday that Bush will address the group, set for March 14-16 in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington. Bush has been invited by the group to speak at CPAC several times, but this will be his first appearance. “We are pleased to announce that my friend Gov. Jeb Bush will be a featured speaker at CPAC 2013,”...

(CNN) -- For all of our post-2012 election talk about the changing culture, the changing demographics and, perhaps, a changing party, preliminary thoughts out of D.C. about the 2016 election have us headed toward not much change at all: Clinton vs Bush...again. I am as intrigued by the prospects of these two juggernauts, Jeb and Hillary, locking ideological horns as I am repulsed by the thought of half of my life being dominated by two family names. One, Clinton, has risen from the ashes after the White House. The other name, Bush, is so toxic that the past two Republican...

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush met Monday with a group of his former staffers at the J. W. Marriott hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, just steps from the White House. Bush, a potential 2016 presidential contender, spent an hour in the hotel’s Cannon room, reminiscing and entertaining questions about his political future. In an interview with NRO, Bush did not rule out a presidential run. “I am here to catch up with folks and promote education reform,” he said, smiling. When asked again whether he will issue a Sherman-type statement about his future, Bush remained coy. “We have an alumni group...

<p>After a year in which Republicans had precious little for which to be thankful, perhaps it's not surprising that party leaders and the faithful spent a good chunk of the long Thanksgiving weekend obsessing instead over 2016 – specifically the possibility of a presidential run by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.</p>

-snip- The Ohio Republican made the remarks when an unidentified woman asked during a question-and-answer session: “Can you make me love Mitt Romney?” “No,” Boehner said. “Listen, we’re just politicians. I wasn’t elected to play God. The American people probably aren’t going to fall in love with Mitt Romney. I’ll tell you this: 95 percent of the people that show up to vote in November are going to show up in that voting booth, and they are going to vote for or against Barack Obama. “Mitt Romney has some friends, relatives and fellow Mormons ... some people that are going...