The first President Bush launched his re-election campaign on February 12, 1992, so the present President Bush is not starting abnormally early.
I remember the date in 1992 because it was Charles Darwin's birthday, and I wondered if that might cost him some votes from the religious Right.
Seems like the rR will grasp at any excuse to jump the reservation so that one would work as well as any. Thank God he didn't have a beagle too.