Son King

By Phillip Longman
Washington Monthly

“No tengo futuro,” Jeb Bush told Spanish-language reporters last December. Word that Florida’s popular two-term governor sees himself as having no political future is hardly surprising. Jeb may be the smart one, the one who’s deeply curious and involved with the mechanics of government, the one whose poll ratings as he leaves office show that 57 percent of Floridians believe he was a good, even a great, governor. But he’s also a Bush, and whatever advantages that patrimony may have given him throughout most of his life, it’s a huge political liability now. True, just maybe his older brother will miraculously deliver “peace with honor” in the next few months. But I think not.

If Jeb Bush would have won the governorship of Florida in '94, he probably would have been the GOP nominee in '00, not his brother. If his last name was something other than Bush, he would have a good chance of being the GOP nominee next year.