Free Republic

We here at CHQ have observed an interesting phenomenon about former Florida Governor Jeb Bush – hardly a week passed after he met with Senator John McCain to discuss how to obtain the Republican presidential nomination without being a conservative until testimonials started flowing about how conservative Jeb is. Of course these testimonials are mostly coming from Democrats and the establishment media, but they are slowly, but inexorably filling the top pages of Google, so that soon they will become the conventional wisdom. Typical of this remaking of Jeb Bush were the comments former Democratic Florida State Senator Dan Gelber...

Hey, Jeb, Ted, Rand, Marco, Bobby, Chris and the dozen or more others I'm forgetting, here's something to write on your bathroom mirror in 2015 and beyond: The "P" in POTUS stands for "President," not "Pundit." I understand that the Seinfeldian faux-holiday Festivus is behind us, but I want to get at least this one grievance in for next year a bit early. Republicans have a tendency to tell, not show. They feel the need to explain why they are saying something, rather than work at simply saying what they need to say convincingly. I call it "reading your stage...

In mid-December, Jeb Bush announced his intention to explore a presidential bid. If he runs and wins the Republican nomination and then the election, he will be the third President Bush in 25 years. That unprecedented prospect has left many wondering: In a republic like ours, is it proper for one family to fill the executive seat so often? The Bushes are not the first family to send multiple members to the White House. They join the Adamses (father John and son John Quincy), the Harrisons (grandfather William Henry and grandson Benjamin), and the Roosevelts (cousins Theodore and Franklin). But...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is resigning his position at a healthcare company that reportedly profited from ObamaCare, as he lays the groundwork for a potential 2016 run.Bush will step down from the board of directors for Tenet Healthcare Corp., on Dec. 31, the hospital operator announced this week, according to the Wall Street Journal.Bush earned close to $300,000 from the company in 2013, according to filings reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. He also sold $1.1 million in company stock that year.It's the second business post Bush is leaving this month. Last week, the former governor announced he...

How could even a RINO like Reince Priebus say: Vote for Jeb Bush it will be so much different to Clinton. I think the policy of promoting self deportation is an act of love for American workers. That's what the aim of the policy is.

In a new poll of likely Republican primary voters nationwide by Zogby Analytics, 2012 GOP nominee Romney leads the pack with 14%, followed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (12%), Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (10%), New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (8%), former Arkansas Governor and now Fox News Host Mike Huckabee (7%), Florida Senator Marco Rubio (7%), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (5%), Rep. and former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan (4%), Texas Governor Rick Perry (4%), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (3%), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (3%), South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (2%), former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (1%), and both...

Some conservative political analysts have opined that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced recently that he was further exploring his options to run for the GOP presidential nomination as a means of pre-empting all other potential GOP candidates. Many of the same analysts say there was an additional, not-so-subtle message, and it was aimed primarily at conservatives: ‘Don’t bother running; the monied GOP interests (i.e. the donor class) have spoken and Jeb Bush is who they want.’ Over the Christmas holidays I have had a number of people ask my opinion about Bush, and what I have told them, essentially,...

When Jeb Bush completed two terms as governor of Florida in 2007, he reported his net worth at $1.3 million, about $700,000 less than when he took office.. Today, nearly eight years later, he is a wealthier man. He has plunged into business and entrepreneurial ventures involving consulting, the paid lecture circuit and energy development. He has developed real estate, advised international investment banks and joined high-paying corporate boards. But as he considers a run for president in 2016, Bush has begun to unwind some of his financial affairs, apparently to avoid the kind of criticism that hobbled fellow Republican...

Presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman has snagged an endorsement in a key battleground state - Jeb Bush Jr, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Rumors of a "major" announcement from the Huntsman campaign have been circulating through Florida for days, leading many to speculate that the former governor himself would throw his weight behind Huntsman. It was his 28-year-old son, however, who accepted a position with the campaign and detailed his support in a statement released Wednesday.

When former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he would “actively explore the possibility of running for president of the United States,” America’s legion of political junkies didn’t exactly jump for joy. On the contrary, many of them — especially if they are conservative or libertarian-leaning activists — rolled their eyes, sighed with world-weary despair, or simply fell into a spell of gentle, quiet weeping. “If Jeb Bush is the nominee,” best-selling author Brad Thor announced, “I will never vote Republican again.” On Twitter, writer Ben Shapiro lampooned the “GOP geniuses” behind the Jeb push: “In 2012, the top issue...

Last week, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush announced his intention to "actively explore" a run for president. That announcement spurred spasms of joy in some segments of the Republican Party who have been itching for an effective counter to the enthusiasm of the grassroots right. Those Republicans -- largely coastal donors who scorn social conservatives as rubes, and shun the supposed fiscal extremism of the tea party -- have been searching for a candidate who will buck the base on immigration, who doesn't mind hand-in-glove corporatism, and who, most of all, feels the same way they do about the grassroots....

I used to think Rubio embracing amnesty was terrible for Jeb. If Bush ran in 2016, I assumed, he’d run as a loud and proud fan of immigration reform, vowing to give the GOP’s wealthy business class all the cheap, legal labor it could handle. Rubio joining the Gang of Eight suddenly meant that there would be two candidates in the race who could fill that niche — and Rubio was younger, less likely to alienate conservatives, more likely to appeal to Latino voters, and unencumbered by “Bush” baggage. He out-Jebbed Jeb! In hindsight, though, Rubio going all in for...

Ever since "Bridge-gate" threatened to derail the once "inevitable" nomination of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as the Republican presidential candidate for 2016, Jeb Bush has been hinting that he might jump into the fray. And with last week's Facebook announcement, the former Florida governor has emerged as a serious contender -- if he chooses to run. The announcement of an exploratory committee has generated instant excitement because many Republicans feel that the former governor stands a very real chance of winning both the Republican nomination and the general election. Though the pundits have pored over all of his liabilities,...

It is set to be one of the toughest US presidential races and certainly its most expensive. With 687 days to go to election day, the 2016 campaign is already rich with storylines as candidates hone their messages and handshakes for the gruelling primary schedule ahead. Will voters warm to another contest between America’s two modern political dynasties in Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush? Or will other, less well-known candidates capitalise on unrest in the US over its widening economic and social fault lines and growing disquiet over its role as the world’s policeman? For Republicans, the field will be...

Jeb Bush’s Ties to Donors Put Rivals in a Bind Network of GOP Contributors Could Hamper Other Republicans’ Fund-Raising By PATRICK O’CONNOR and BETH REINHARD Jeb Bush’s announcement that he will explore a White House bid threatens years of painstaking spadework by other Republicans who have cultivated many of the wealthy donors loyal to the former Florida governor’s family. Mr. Bush is heir to a vaunted network of Republican contributors built over his family’s two presidencies, his own governorship and other campaigns. It is one of the most formidable assets in GOP politics and could...

Sheesh! Talk about a cheap shot. If former New Mexico governor and Clinton cabinet member Bill Richardson dislikes Jeb Bush, at least criticize him for something plausible. Instead, Richardson took a cheap shot at Jeb Bush on Meet The Press today for supposedly having a poor ability to speak Spanish. Really, Bill? Because the video below of Bush speaking Spanish during an interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos clearly demonstrates a high degree of fluency in that language.

Cokie and Steven Roberts: Jeb, Hillary mirror each other Posted on December 21, 2014 COKIE and STEVEN ROBERTS Syndicated columnists Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton badly need each other. They cancel out each others’ greatest weaknesses and deprive their foes of some of their strongest arguments. Both have similar flaws and are vulnerable to the same charges: that they are too old (Jeb would be 63 on election day 2016; Hillary, 69), too out of practice (Jeb was last elected governor of Florida in 2002; Hillary was last elected senator from New York in 2006), too tied to previous presidents...

Jeb Bush left the Florida governor’s office in January of 2007, after eight years of service. Three months later, he joined the board of a hospital company that had been pillaging government health programs and abusing patients, in Florida and around the country, for most of the years he sat in the governor’s office. Apart from a very generous compensation package, why did Bush sign on with such a tarnished company? And will whatever explanation he now offers hold up under the microscope of a presidential campaign? Tenet Healthcare Corp. is a national for-profit hospital company with a sordid history....

Nothing shakes up the political landscape more than the exciting arrival of a new, bold, spirited, youthful fresh face. And then there is Jeb Bush, 61, the Eddie Haskell of the Republican Party. Why that's a lovely dress you're wearing, Mrs. Koch. For a while there the former governor of Florida was flirting with being tagged as the GOP's version of an overly cautious, indecisive Democrat — Mario Cuomo 2.0 — as he mulled and ruminated and pondered and cogitated on whether he should run for president. Decisions, decisions. But this was about as big a mystery as wondering if...

Since talking about it on Morning Joe earlier today, a few people have asked me to expound on my theory regarding what Jeb Bush would have to do to overcome the many challenges he would face on his way to the Republican nomination. It seems clear that Bush is hell-bent on not pandering to the base, so the obvious challenge he will have to overcome is winning a Republican primary while holding some positions (immigration reform, Common Core, etc.) which are anathema to the grassroots conservatives who will comprise a decent chunk of the primary electorate. The way to overcome...