Jeb! in 2012
December 1, 2008 at 4:30 pm by Wayne Garcia
The body of his brother’s presidency is not even cold yet and Jeb Bush is (practically) off and running for the 2012 nomination, giving one of his (increasingly less) rare interviews, this time with the right-wing online Newsmax.com in which he sets out the direction he believes the GOP should take:
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tells Newsmax that the GOP must broaden its appeal to avoid becoming “the old white-guy party,” and recommends that Republicans create a “shadow government” to engage Democrats on important issues as the incoming Obama administration seeks to enact its agenda.
Bush also said Barack Obama’s election was neither “transformational” nor a landslide, pointing to the huge advantage in fundraising that Obama enjoyed. And Bush had this warning for Republicans looking for a new direction:
Bush urged Republicans not to abandon their core conservative principles in favor of a “Democratic-lite” agenda. Still, the GOP does need to do some real soul-searching, he said.
“If you take the [last] two election cycles, there’s real cause for concern, no question about it,” he said.
There is good news for Republicans, Bush said: The United States remains “basically a center-right country.” He cited President-elect Barack Obama’s stance on taxes as an example.
“Who would have thought the so-called liberal candidate would be the one advocating tax cuts, and attacking the Republican candidate for tax hikes — which wasn’t true, but was effective when you consider he was outspending Sen. McCain by five to one.”
Oh, and be a little more tolerant, he adds:
“We can’t ignore large segments of our population and expect to win,” Bush said. “We can’t be the ‘old white-guy’ party. It’s just not going to work, the demographics go against us in that regard.
“Among Hispanic voters, I think we need to change the tone of the conversation as it relates to immigration. In Florida, we’ve not participated much in the chest pounding and the yelling and the screaming. I mean, it just drives me nuts when there are substantive policy differences that we can show mutual respect on, but the tone needs to change. And I think we need to recruit more candidates who share our values in the Hispanic community. In Florida we’ve done that.”
Jeb!’s education reform think-tank, Foundation for Florida’s Future, quickly shared excerpts of the article with an e-mail blast.
And how good is that hard-charging “journalism” at Newsmax? Here’s the only mention of the fact that Jeb! could be looking to add a third Bush to the presidential rolls: “who frequently is mentioned as a top-tier GOP presidential prospect.”
Video here.
