Jeb Bush Presidential Bid Still Lacks Buzz

By Thomas Francis Fri., Oct. 23 2009 at 10:13 AM

Categories: Florida, Politics

As parents in the Palm Beach County School District tries to roll back Jeb Bush's shameful legacy of FCAT drilling, the former Florida governor is roaming around, looking to get his voice heard, apparently to gauge interest in a 2012 run for president (though he'd never admit that).

Bush made a very brief -- and somewhat shocking -- appearance as an Obama booster in today's column in the New York Times by David Brooks -- apparently the ex-governor's a fan of what the president has done with national education policy. Really? Yeesh! Good thing good Republicans boycott the Times.

On Wednesday Bush gave a speech at George Washington University, calling out his fellow Republicans for being "the party of no" and for not being "forward looking" -- points similar to those he was making last spring in an appearance in Virginia with Rep. Eric Cantor and Mitt Romney.
And maybe that redundancy is to blame for the speech's failing to raise eyebrows in the national press. Seems that, upon closer inspection, Bush's ideas aren't as new as they sound in his slogans:

When asked for actual policies Republicans should be pushing, Bush called for "simpler and lower taxes," and suggested a committee similar to Reagan's Grace Commission to investigate and reduce government waste.

He'll have to do better than that to leap up the pundits' scorecard in the race for the 2012 Republican nomination -- a prize that looks even more inviting with Obama's health care stumbles.