Politico
By Eli Stokols and Marc Caputo
June 16, 2015
When
Jeb Bush finally took the stage after 40 minutes of warm-up speakers
and musical acts — a prolonged windup that still pales in comparison to
the 18 months of planning
and plotting that led to Monday — what he said was no surprise, even if
he sought to portray it that way.
“I have decided,” Bush said. “I am a candidate for president of the United States.”
His
30-minute announcement speech, a detailed and selective overview of his
record that drew heavily on professional accomplishments and lighter on
the personal, revealed
how Bush plans to present himself to a conservative primary electorate
that thinks he’s too soft and a country that’s tired of political
dynasties trading the White House back and forth.
Here are five takeaways from Bush’s campaign launch:
1.
¡JEB, the Latino candidate! From beginning to end, Bush’s campaign
kickoff bore the stamp of Miami’s Latin flavor. Salsa music
intermittently played as guests took
their seats in the gymnasium of Miami Dade College in the suburb of
Kendall.
The
Chirino Sisters — the three daughters of Latin crooner Willy Chirino —
took the stage and sang three songs, two in Spanish. And Chirino, a
Cuban exile, briefly contrasted
the lack of democracy in Cuba with the 2016 presidential race. Bush’s
son, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, briefly spoke in Spanish,
as did the candidate toward the end of his announcement.
“As
a candidate, I intend to let everyone hear my message, including the
many who can express their love of country in a different language,” Jeb
Bush said in English,
transitioning to Spanish as he called on people to have a campaign that
“welcomes” people and emphasizes our “shared values [and] the cause of
all who love freedom, the noble cause of the United States.”
Bush
has backed a pathway to residency — or citizenship in some cases — for
some undocumented immigrants. But he was briefly interrupted by a group
of pro-immigration
activists, wearing neon-lime-green shirts each with an oversized letter
that, together, spelled out “LEGAL STATUS.” The crowd drowned out the
activists with the chant “USA!” Bush promised to pass “meaningful”
immigration reform, eliciting more shouts of approval
from the crowd. The energy didn’t surprise Mel Martinez, Florida’s
first Cuban-American senator.
“This
isn’t fake. This is real. If you want a good political rally, bring a
bunch of Latins. The best rallies I had running for the Senate was right
here in Miami,” Martinez
said. Asked about Marco Rubio, who holds the seat he once did, Martinez
said, “I wish he would stay there.”
2.
Jeb wants to be the candidate of reform, not grievance. Bush pushed an
image of himself as a fix-it politician who would start an aggressive
reform agenda on Day One.
“We need a president willing to challenge and disrupt the whole culture
in our nation’s capital,” Bush said, zeroing in on education, one of
his top issues as governor.
While
other candidates have rattled off long lists of Washington failures,
and as the Republican Party still struggles to shake off its reputation
as the party of no,
Bush emphasized his ability to not just spot weaknesses but also
address them head-on. From the moment he entered the Florida Governor’s
Mansion in 1999, Bush fashioned himself as a conservative reformer, from
taking on public-school unions to scaling back
affirmative action to privatizing more aspects of Medicaid.
He channeled that reputation on Monday, highlighting education.
“After
we reformed education in Florida, low-income student achievement
improved here more than in any other state,” he said. “We stopped
processing kids along as if we
didn’t care — because we do care, and you don’t show that by counting
out anyone’s child. You give them all a chance.”
Unmentioned
by Bush: Common Core, the set of interstate educational standards that
have become increasingly unpopular, especially among conservatives.
3.
Jeb wants to change the legacy script. While his brother oversaw the
beginnings of a devastating economic collapse, Bush foisted the legacy
of an underwhelming economic
recovery on Obama and pointed to his own financial legacy: high bond
ratings and low unemployment.
“I
also used my veto power to protect our taxpayers from needless
spending. And if I am elected president, I’ll show Congress how that’s
done,” said Bush, who didn’t point
out that it was easier to veto individual projects as Florida governor
because he had line-item veto authority.
Bush
also offered some legacy-making promises — 4 percent annual economic
growth and American energy independence in five years after his
election.
And he suggested Hillary Clinton was the heir to legacy — an ideological one that, he said, has resulted in failure.
“The
party now in the White House is planning a no-suspense primary, for a
no-change election. To hold onto power. To slog on with the same agenda
under another name:
That’s our opponents’ call to action this time around. That’s all
they’ve got left,” he said. “They have offered a progressive agenda that
includes everything but progress. They are responsible for the slowest
economic recovery ever, the biggest debt increases
ever, a massive tax increase on the middle class, the relentless
buildup of the regulatory state, and the swift, mindless drawdown of a
military that was generations in the making.”
4.
Jeb’s stances on immigration and Common Core distance him from the GOP
base, but his Catholic faith brings him back into the flock. His son,
George P. Bush, highlighted
his father’s religiosity, telling the crowd that “faith in God has
organized his life and purpose — it has sustained him.” When it came
time for Jeb to cast himself as a true conservative who will fight the
progressive agenda, he chose to focus on something
that underlined his faith and belief in religious liberty, blasting
Hillary Clinton for saying that religious belief should come second when
it conflicts with federal law.
“The
most galling example is the shabby treatment of the Little Sisters of
the Poor, a Christian charity that dared to voice objections of
conscience to Obamacare,” Bush
said. “The next president needs to make it clear that great charities
like the Little Sisters of the Poor need no federal instruction in doing
the right thing.
“It comes down to a choice between the Little Sisters and Big Brother, and I’m going with the Sisters,” Bush said to applause.
Religion
isn’t a major part of Bush’s stump speech, but it’s becoming clear that
when the there is an opportunity — during a town hall at a Christian
college in Dubuque,
Iowa, or as he walked across Warsaw’s Pidsulski Square, the sight of
Pope John Paul II’s 1979 world Mass, last week with his wife, who
persuaded him to convert to Catholicism — Bush is more than happy to
talk about his faith.
It’s
a point of emphasis that plays well with the base, and it passes Bush’s
own internal test of being true. “I have to be authentic,” he said
Saturday as he prepared
for Monday’s announcement. In this area, Bush’s authenticity aligns
with the conservative movement.
5.
Jeb’s bringing hustle to the game, and trying to shake the entitlement
rep. “I will campaign as I would serve, going everywhere, speaking to
everyone, keeping my word,
facing the issues without flinching, and staying true to what I
believe,” Bush promised at the close of his speech.
“I will take nothing and no one for granted. I will run with heart. I will run to win.”
On
paper, those words may seem trite. But Bush’s own voice gave them
meaning. Not only did he deliver the lines to rising applause here, he
sounded like he really believes
that he’s going to have a dogfight ahead of him — and that he relishes
it.
As
the son and brother of former presidents who has milked the family
fundraising machine for an anticipated $100 million haul, Bush is
already perceived by many as the
front-runner. He can’t change that, but he can be sure not to give off
even a whiff of entitlement. That was the point of him saying that no
candidate “deserves the job by right of résumé, party, seniority,
family, or family narrative. It’s nobody’s turn.
It’s everybody’s test, and it’s wide open — exactly as a contest for
president should be.”
The
workmanlike approach has been on display for six months, not just as
Bush showed up in New York City and Chicago to kiss the rings of
billionaire donors, but also
as he’s opened up his events in Iowa and New Hampshire to voters — and
reporters — with questions.
At
the end of the day, Bush’s accessibility, his openness to people in the
crowd and to the media creates a more defined contrast with Clinton,
who held a rarer than rare
news conference Monday, and allows him to let everyone see that he’s
willing to work hard to earn every last vote, that he’s not the entitled
heir to a political dynasty running because it’s finally his turn.
“Jeb’s
going to work hard in every state,” said longtime adviser and friend Al
Cardenas, who sat in the front row. “At the end, he hopes it’s going to
be just enough.”
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