Jeb jumps in at last
Tweaks political families
WASHINGTON — Jeb Bush vowed to “disrupt the whole culture” of DC as he finally made the official announcement Monday that he’s running for president— and then made an unexpected argument against inherited power.
“Not a one of us deserves the job by right of résumé, party, seniority, family, or family narrative,” Bush told a lively crowd in Miami. “It’s nobody’s turn. It’s everybody’s test, and it’s wide open — exactly as a contest for president should be.”
Bush even made light of his own legacy by taking a jab at the possibility President Obama will pass the baton to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“The presidency should not be passed on from one liberal to the next,” Bush said to a mixture of laughs and applause.
The line was a reference to one of the chief arguments against his own candidacy, with “Bush fatigue” among Republicans just six years after his brother George W. Bush left office— and with him facing a bevy of freshfaced opponents.
His joke was a play on a line by upstart Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley, who has warned that the presidency isn’t a “crown” to be passed between two competing families, namely the Bushes and the Clintons.
Bush insisted if he’s elected there would be no more business as usual in Washington.
“We don’t need another president who merely holds the top spot among the pampered elites of Washington,” Bush said.
“We need a president willing to challenge and disrupt the whole culture in our nation’s capital. I will be that president because I was a reforming governor, not just another member of the club.”
Bush and his campaign team have been carefully crafting how to deal with his lineage, which dates back to President George H. W. Bush and Sen. Prescott Bush ( RConn.) before him.
Jeb’s brother didn’t attend the announcement, and the only evidence of his 91yearold dad was a photo Jeb Bush tweeted out of himself phoning his father.
Family matriarch Barbara attended the speech, and Jeb’s son, George P. Bush, who is currently serving as the Texas land commissioner, gave an introduction.
Jeb displayed the family knack for lobbing a few bombs at opponents. The former Florida governor blasted Obama for a “phone it in foreign policy” that Bush said has left a “legacy of crises uncontained, violence unopposed, enemies unnamed, friends undefended, and alliances unraveling.”