Jeb Bush attempted to convince some skeptical Republicans in New Hampshire on Friday that he’s not as moderate as he’s been depicted by some because of his stances on immigration and Common Core.
“The funny thing is in Florida, those that are on the left that are really upset that people are calling me something I’m not,” he said after a woman in the audience said she feared the Republicans were going to “coronate” Bush like the Democrats may end up doing with Hillary Clinton in their search for a presidential nominee.
“It’s kind of amusing,”he added. “The liberals in Florida are angry that people don’t see me as a conservative outside of Florida. Well, my record is a conservative one.”
Bush began his speech to the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua by talking about his family, his wife, his life as a businessman, and all the reforms he accomplished in the Sunshine State from 1998-2006, a record he is proud to tell anyone and everyone about, especially skeptical Republicans.
“I will have to earn it,” he said to those who thought he might be the establishment favorite in the contest. “No one’s going to give it to me. That’s more than apparent to me.”
He also attempted to sound forward thinking.
During his speech announcing his candidacy for president on Monday night, Marco Rubio forcefully charged that he is part of a generational change needed in Washington.
At 62, Jeb Bush is part of that older generation, but in his speech in Nashua, he extolled the virtues of disruptive technology and innovation, and said the big question is: will it overwhelm us?
“We’re on the verge where my little four-year-old (grandson) Jack is going to live to be 130 years old,”he said without elaborating. “Your kids and grand kids are going to as well. We’re on the verge of discovering the cures of diseases using life science that defies our imagination,” he said. “Are we capable of making disruption our friend, or will it overwhelm us? And that requires the leadership to fix a few big, complex things.”
Bush was the last speaker of the afternoon session of the forum, where 19 possible presidential candidates are scheduled to speak over the courses of two days. He spoke for 15 minutes, and then took questions for another 15 minutes from the hundreds in attendance.He talked about how the GOP must offer a compelling alternative for the masses next year, and not be too negative in assessing the Democrats who have been in charge and could continue to be in charge after 2016.
Immigration never came up in the Q&A, but his support for Common Core education standards did. Based on the audience’s reaction to the term being used throughout the day, it is absolutely a negative for his candidacy.
But Bush took the question head on, saying he was going to bring it up if nobody else had. He said he was all about raising standards to have high school students prepared to enter college or the job force. “Whether it is Common Core, which is higher standards than all but a handful of states,or standards created at the state level, to me is not as meaningful as the fact that they should be higher.”
On Cuba, not surprisingly, Bush disagrees with what President Obama has done in normalizing relations with the communist island. “I didn’t agree with the way he did it in secrecy…I don’t agree on how he negotiated, basically making unilateral concessions for our country, with nothing in return.”
Bush said those negotiations should have been to demand more freedom and release of political prisoners by the Raul Castro-led government. More freedom for businesses to start up. Free elections. Freedom of movement. Freedom of religion. “Until you disavow terrorism in general, we can’t open up relationships.” He said if the U.S. would have done that, Cuba would be in a different situation than they are, based on lower oil prices in the U.S. not allowing Venezuela to continue to subsidize the island nation.
He says that would have created a much better climate for negotiations than just hoping that the sheer force of the president’s personality would get Castro to change course. “Despots don’t go quietly into the night,” he concluded.
Bush is not the final speaker of the day. That honor goes to his Miami-area neighbor, Senator Rubio, who will speak as the dinner speaker on Friday night. Rubio got that slot after Chris Christie delayed too long in deciding whether or not he was going to appear at the event.
