Jeb: The Next National Bush?

Jeb Bush is ready to run.  Raising money and staff, releasing emails and an e-book.  We’ll look at the next Bush up, and his record.

How serious is Jeb Bush about a run for the White House?  Well, he’s got a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser tonight on Wall Street.  Punching that ticket.  He’s speaking all over the place, in very Presidential terms.  He’s lining up his theme:  here’s a man with a compassionate leadership style and deeply conservative credentials.  And his rallying cry:  the “Right to Rise.”  It’s the name of his Super PAC.  A call to opportunity.  Republicans have been too harsh, says Jeb Bush.  It’s time to be hopeful, aspirational.  This hour On Point:  we’re looking at Jeb Bush – Bush #3 – lining up for a presidential run.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Robert Costa, national political reporter for the Washington Post. (@costareports)

Susan MacManus, professor in the University of South Florida-Tampa's department of government and international affairs. Author of the forthcoming book, "Florida's Minority Trailblazers." (@drmacmanus)

S.V. Dáte, editor of NPR News' Washington Desk. Author of "Jeb: America's Next Bush." (@svdate)

Washington Post: In Iowa, Republican field wide open as moderates stake their caucus claims — "Political observers in Iowa say that the field is wide open and that numerous candidates have a legitimate shot to win or do well enough to come out with momentum. That is partly because moderates in the Iowa Republican Party, led by Gov. Terry Branstad, have reasserted themselves into the caucus process after watching social conservatives dominate in 2008 and 2012."

New Yorker: Testing Time — "Bush is being viewed as a moderate in the emerging Presidential field. He has strong support among the Party’s establishment and donor class, but his popularity among the current conservative rank and file is difficult to gauge. Since he left office, Bush has maintained a national profile through his work on the issue with which, as governor, he had sought to make his biggest mark: education reform. But, after leading the way in pushing a conservative vision for America’s schools, Bush is now caught in the midst of an unexpected upheaval on the issue within his own party."

POLITICO Magazine: Jeb ‘Put Me Through Hell’ -- "'If you want to understand Jeb Bush, he’s guided by principle over convenience,' said Dennis Baxley, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives during Bush’s governorship and still. 'He may be wrong about something, but he knows what he believes.'"