{"id":9313,"date":"2006-12-12T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2006-12-12T16:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9313.html"},"modified":"2006-12-12T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2006-12-12T16:06:08","slug":"jeb-bush-not-ruling-in-or-out-2008-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/jeb-bush-not-ruling-in-or-out-2008-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeb Bush ‘not ruling in or out’ 2008 race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scuttlebutt over the last several days is whether the Bush brothers are split<\/a> in their 2008 presidential preferences. George W. seems to be favoring John McCain’s candidacy, as evidenced by several top aides moving into the senator’s camp. Jeb, meanwhile, seems to prefer Gov. Mitt Romney, with many of the Florida governor’s team signing up with the Massachusetts governor’s campaign.<\/p>\n

So, the writing’s on the wall, right? Maybe, unless Jeb decides to surprise the political world by weighing a race of his own<\/a> (via Blue Sun Belt<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he is “not ruling in or out” running for president or vice president in 2008.<\/p>\n

…”I don’t know what’s going to happen to me next,” Bush said. “I wouldn’t rule it [running for president] out or in. It’s not even on my radar.” Nor is running for vice president.<\/p>\n

“I’m kind of excited about not knowing, to be honest with you, just because it’s the first time in a long time in my life where I don’t know what I’m going to do. In all honesty, I’m looking forward to what the future holds, but I just don’t know what it will be.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a very hard time buying into the “not even on my radar” line. Jeb Bush has been asked, repeatedly, about whether he’d consider a run for national office. For months, he’s said he’s not interested. In May, George W. caused a stir<\/a> by talking up a possible Jeb campaign, but Jeb said he wouldn’t run. In July, U.S. News reported<\/a> that Jeb was thinking about it, prompting another denial.<\/p>\n

And now Jeb says he’s not “ruling in or out” a possible campaign? Unless NewsMax radically misquoted him, or completely mischaracterized his comments, it sounds like the outgoing Florida governor is at least considering<\/i> the race.
\n
\nAt a certain level, it makes sense that Jeb would mull this over. McCain is hardly loved by the GOP base and is well past his prime. Romney’s new-found penchant for right-wing positions is wholly at odds with everything he used to say. Giuliani is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun control. Newt Gingrich is, well, Newt Gingrich.<\/p>\n

Just below the surface, there’s a subtle GOP yearning for a trusted conservative who can raise a lot of money, appeal to a cross-section of the party’s factions, and be a credible general-election candidate. Allen and Santorum could have been the candidate, but they lost their re-election bids. Jeb would have been the go-to guy all along, except he said he wouldn’t run.<\/p>\n

And now, he seems to have opened the door, just a crack. His “not ruling in or out” remark hasn’t been picked up<\/a> in the media beyond NewsMax, but if it does get noticed, expect a flurry of media interest in Jeb’s future plans.<\/p>\n

Over the last 30 years, every single Republican presidential ticket has featured someone named Bush or Dole. I was cautiously optimistic 2008 would break the trend. Perhaps not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scuttlebutt over the last several days is whether the Bush brothers are split in their 2008 presidential preferences. George W. seems to be favoring John McCain’s candidacy, as evidenced by several top aides moving into the senator’s camp. Jeb, meanwhile, seems to prefer Gov. Mitt Romney, with many of the Florida governor’s team signing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}