Jeb Bush launch his presidential campaign with a thud, as the former famous governor with the famous last name, took the stage and could not explain why he is running for president.
Video:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Bush was introduced as “the new Republican Party,” which means that the new Republican Party is a return to the Bush family, so the “new” Republican Party is the same Republican Party that started wars and collapsed the economy. None of te pre-Bush speakers could give any reason Bush should be president.
Jeb Bush began by proclaiming that his campaign begins today. Bush claimed that Democrats are planning a no suspense primary to hold to the same agenda under a new name. Bush said that the progressive agenda didn’t include progress. He accused Democrats of raising taxes on the middle-class and not growing the economy. Bush said, “The presidency should not be passed on from one liberal to the next.”
Bush was like a rudderless ship. He was made noise, but his speech was not going anywhere. It is always a bad sign when a candidate begins with an attack on their opponents instead of stating why they want to be elected. Bush spouted a bunch of generic we will create opportunity talking points and hinted that creating opportunity involves rolling back regulations. Bush said his goal was to grow the economy at a rate of 4% a year and create 19 million new jobs. (George W. Bush averaged 1.6% growth and Ronald Reagan 3.5%. Obama’s economic growth in the third and fourth quarter in 2014 was 3.9% and 5%.) Bush is actually promising to grow fewer jobs than President Obama’s recent record.
The biggest problem with Jeb Bush as a candidate is that he is boring. His speech was dull, empty, and vague. Bush spent a lot of time talking about his time as governor and claiming that he is more prepared than Obama was for the presidency. Bush argued for privatizing schools, and taking the “power” away from teachers’ unions. Bush offered up the usual attacks against President Obama’s foreign policy and warned that the country was facing “military inferiority.” Inferiority to who or what was not made clear. Bush is going to stand up the Cuban red menace and buddy up to Bibi in Israel.
There is a gigantic structural problem facing the Bush campaign. Bush’s launch was a blatant pander to Hispanic voters, but the Republican Party is anti-Hispanic. The Republican Party is so anti-immigrant that they are beginning to oppose legal immigration. Bush is trying to appeal to voters who Republicans have been demonizing for years.
It is like Bush has been asleep for the last decade and has absolutely no idea what the Republican Party has become. Bush is so delusional that he promised to pass immigration reform. Bush kept the pandering to Hispanic voters going by later speaking Spanish. One could almost hear Bush losing votes in Republican primaries around the country as he spoke.
What stood out about Bush’s speech is that he has nothing to run, but that he is a Bush. He sounded like a relic from the last decade. Bush had no forward thinking vision. There was no difference between Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney. The Bush speech was a bomb, and in one address it captured why the Bush campaign is struggling.
Jeb isn’t offering voters anything but more Bush, and this speech showed that Jeb doesn’t have style or substance. He’s just another Republican retread.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
