Bush declined to offer his thoughts on whether Trump, who stood next to Bush on stage, hurt himself by embracing his brash persona at the debate, saying only, “we’ll find out”. He was the former governor of Florida.
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Bush also dismissed concerns he was running in a political race against candidates who were outwardly more aggressive.
Speaking before Rubio was another underdog, Carly Fiorina, who got rave reviews from conservatives with her standout debate performance. As a result, while his substantive credentials are largely solid he is (self-consciously) mismatched to the tone of the present day GOP.
“Cheat on Sundays”, he said, talking about how he has “Sunday Funday” with his family. However, the Fox News moderating team of Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly, and Bret Baier provided more than enough frontal challenges to Trump that the other candidates didn’t need to bother.
Still, campaigning comes naturally to Bush. “Bushism is a way of positioning oneself through the successive watering down of what used to be called modern Republicanism”.
“George P. Bush knows Jeb Bush better than anyone in the country”.
That’s because the next-generation bearer of the powerful political name has been helping relatives run since age 3, when he clutched a balloon and sported a campaign T-shirt as his grandfather, George H.W. Bush, launched his first presidential bid from a Houston park in 1979. (“Kinder than who?”Nancy Reagan asked when she heard the line.). I haven’t eaten since pre-debate”, he said as he strolled through Brown’s Lobster Pound in Seabrook, greeting voters and posing for selfies a little more than 12 hours after taking part in the first Republican presidential primary debate”. A few even shouted obscenities as he spoke about immigration and Common Core educational standards.
But putting aside the baggage the surname brings, can warmed-over Bushism succeed in the 2016 GOP?
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Bush, among the rivals scrambling for notice in a campaign dominated at the moment by Donald Trump, said: “I don’t view debating as a question of winning and losing. That is George P. Bush”, quips state Sen. “I think what we have right now is some excitement, intrigue, and that’s great, as long as you can contain it”. (Think the Trump infatuation.) So, for example, the idea of shutting down the government – seen in 1999 as politically suicidal – is gaining currency… again. “They’ll decide who the president is”.
