Stepping up his public lobbying on Jeb Bush to jump into the 2016 presidential race, former President George W. Bush said Tuesday that his brother and Hillary Clinton are likely the best the Republicans and Democrats have to offer.
“Jeb has to think about whether or not he wants to be president just like Hillary Clinton has to think about whether she wants to be president,” Bush, promoting a new book, said on NPR News.
“Some guy at one time said to me, ‘You know, I don’t like the idea of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Bush.’ I said, ‘Oh, okay.’ I said, ‘How you like the idea of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton?’ And the point is, is that these may be the two best candidates their party has to offer.”
But getting the nomination, or the Oval Office, won’t be a gift to either just because of their last names, he said. “In order to become president, you have to earn it,” said Bush.
Key excerpt from the interview:
NPR: Some people have said they’ve had enough already. Too many Clintons. Too many Bushes. Too many of the same name. What do you tell them?
GWB: I tell them that in order to become president, you have to earn it. That in many ways the name is a plus. In some ways the name is a burden. And you’ve just described one of the burdens, and that is that people assume that if your name was different you couldn’t succeed. In other words, it causes people to be resentful and not listen to the platforms and or think about the strengths of the candidate. I mean the environment is what it is. You don’t get to rewrite the environment, and so Jeb has to think about whether or not he wants to be president just like Hillary Clinton has to think about whether she wants to be president. Some guy at one time said to me, ‘You know, I don’t like the idea of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Bush.’ I said, ‘Oh, okay.’ I said, ‘How you like the idea of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton?’ And the point is, is that these may be the two best candidates their party has to offer.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
