Presidential Would Be Hopeful Jeb Bush Sends Up the First Trial Balloon for 2016

Just What the Country Needs, Another Bush Burning to be President

Now that it has been a little over two whole months since the end of the 2012 Presidential election the would be candidates for 2016 are gathering their thoughts and putting out the word that maybe, just maybe, they could be convinced to run in 2016.   

NJ Gov. Chris Christie is pursuing the strategy of getting a huge win in his re-election bid.  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is going to various primary states.  Florida Senator Marco Rubio is appealing to the fundamentalist religionists by questioning the age of the Earth, and VP candidate Paul Ryan is doing the only thing that might make him appealing to voters, he is keeping his mouth shut.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is using the time tested ‘trial balloon’ method.  In this strategy one presents oneself as a reluctant candidate, being happy in his or her current job and behind the scenes generating stories to be written about how they just might seek the Republican nomination if there was enough interest by the Party.

Associated Press

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is considering 

running for president in 2016, close aides 

and friends say.

As Republicans begin the early jockeying for the 2016 presidential race, the intention of one man, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, dominates conversations and informal strategy sessions.

Within the party, Mr. Bush is seen as the one potential candidate whose decision on whether to run—yea or nay—has the power to scramble the rest of the field.

Close aides and friends say he is actively weighing a run, something he didn't do in the last election cycle. "Gov. Bush has made a decision to make a decision at some point about running for president," said Sally Bradshaw, a longtime adviser who talks frequently with Mr. Bush, who declined to comment for this article.

Mr. Bush is appealing because he is married to a Hispanic, which allows pandering that few other Republicans can do.

A Spanish speaker whose wife is Mexican-American, Mr. Bush, 59 years old, has long advocated a comprehensive fix to the country's immigration problems.

And of course he is the reluctant candidate, happy with his current work.

Others note that he appears content doing what he's doing now, weighing in on education policy as an advocate of school choice and common testing standards, while running a consulting business. A new book he has written on immigration will come out this spring.

"Jeb leads a full and happy life," said Florida GOP strategist Ana Navarro, a friend of the former governor's. "It's not like the burning thought of being president keeps him up at night."

But no one should be fooled, an article about a possible Presidential run just doesn’t magically appear in the Wall Street Journal.  It is part of the campaign to present Jeb as the electable conservative, one who doesn’t want to jail everyone with a foreign sounding name or force everyone to attend Sunday religious services or cut taxes to zero for every wealthy person.  And as the article points out,

No Republican not named Bush has won the White House since 1984, an eternity in politics.