George P Bush for...Newt?
AP filed a story on George P Bush that tried to put him in an ideological box. C'mon, you knew it was coming whenever there was a slow news cycle.
But rather than campaigning on the mainstream Republicanism embodied by the family name, Bush says he's "a movement conservative" more in line with the tea party.
As if to underscore the point, he says he draws the most inspiration not from the administrations of his grandfather, George H. W. Bush, or his uncle, George W. Bush, but from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engineered the 1994 Republican takeover of that chamber.
That's really a point worth exploring, but unfortunately we got little insight from the AP article aside from a 94 mention. I don't remember "P" endorsing Newt's presidential run, although that's hardly dispositive: it's definitely possible to admire Gingrich as a prolific fount of -- occasionally brilliant -- ideas even if you don't think he has the temperament to be president.
The "movement" is accepting of P for a few reasons that I think the article missed or glossed over:
1) His father Jeb was a more conservative governor than his uncle George W, despite the fact that Florida was and is a much less conservative state than Texas.
2) P's endorsements in high-profile races have been conservative. The Cruz endorsement came early in July 2011, and while personal connections may have played a strong role (they founded MavPAC together) in the Cruz endorsement, the Cruz campaign found George P to be a pleasure to work with. Likewise, P officially endorsed Rubio relatively early in Jan 2010 against Crist, but had scheduled a fundraiser for Rubio at least a month beforehand. At the time, Rubio had traction but was about 10 points back, per public polls. By contrast, John Cornyn didn't soft-pedal (and never rescinded) his Charlie Crist endorsement until March 2010, at which point Rubio was clearly winning the primary.
3) He's done the work. MavPAC and Hispanic Republicans of Texas have both been P projects, plus the fact that he's been available for speeches and fundraising for a long time.
Posted by Evan @ 12/16/13 07:52 AM
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
Comments
Sounds an awful lot like W back in the day.
Posted by Filipe Allou @ 12/18/13 11:55 AM
I have never studied W's endorsements. On the other hand, W is certainly to the right of his father and you could probably guess that from his Texas upbringing as well as his political work for his father's national campaigns.
Posted by Evan PvW @ 12/19/13 10:42 PM
Add Comments
No flames or impolite behavior. HTML will be stripped. URLs will be transformed into hyperlinks.