that is the question Eugene Robinson explores in this Washington Post column that I strongly recommend you read.
Perhaps you will get a good sense of how Robinson will answer that question with his opening paragraph:
Jeb Bush has firmly established himself as the Republican to vote for if you wish his brother were still president. Best of luck with that.
Much of the column notes the contradiction of trying to pretend you think the Iraq invasion was, knowing what we know now, a mistake, as seems to be required to have any credibility.
But judging from his actions, that’s not what he seems to believe.
Actions that include having as a chief foreign policy adviser one of the architects of the Iraq disaster, Paul Wolfowitz, or considering your brother the former President whose administration took us into that war under false pretenses as someone to whom you would turn for foreign policy advise.
Robinson also takes Bush to task for trying to blame Obama and preemptively blame Clinton for the continued problems in the greater Middle East, while ignoring that it was his brothers actions that created an unstable Iraq in which Isis could arise, and telling further us
Voters might also recall that when Bush’s brother took office, Iran had no operational uranium enrichment centrifuges; when he left, Iran had about 4,000.
Now that's a fact that the Dems should be prepared to use not only against Bush, but against those who oppose the current Iran deal - look where our previous round of military posturing got us!
But there's more.
there is not as much focus on specific topics outside of foreign policy, but boy are there some zingers, for example, saying of Jeb
He becomes much more animated, and seems on more solid ground, when he’s talking about domestic issues. But remember that George W. Bush intended to have a domestic focus, too, before history decided otherwise.
Robinson immediately follows that with this:
Can Bush ever escape his brother’s shadow — or, for that matter, his father’s? I have serious doubts. For now, however, he’s busy enough trying to get out of Donald Trump’s wake.
He observes how the Bush campaign seems out of synch with the times, and writes
frankly he seems to be putting a lot of Republican voters to sleep.
Perhaps that is why he is polling so poorly. Robinson notes at 7% he is tied for 6th place in Iowa, and while in 2nd behind Trump in RCP average of polls in NH, he is only 1 point ahead of Kasich
who suddenly seems to be challenging Bush for the “reasonable conservative” vote.
There is after what I have just blockquoted only one paragraph, which is two sentences, which have 8 and 7 words respectively, and devastatingly complete the portrait the Robinson has been painting:
His brother’s name is already hurting Jeb Bush. His brother’s policies will hurt him more.
To which might I add only the following. Let's assume for the moment that Hillary is the nominee (which if Biden gets in the race becomes increasingly likely, with one woman running against 5 men (Sanders, Biden, O'Malley, Webb, Chafee).
We have had a Clinton-Bush race before.
We know how that turned out. The incumbent President with the last name of Bush took only 39% of the popular vote.
Yes that was a 3-way race. But if Bush is the Republican nominee, the odds of this being a 3-way race with Trump running outside the two parties goes way up.
But that assumes that Bush could actually win the nomination. For all his millions raised, it is likely that the Koch money is more likely to go to Walker, and then the two of them can waste their hundreds of millions bashing each other and bashing Trump.
But those are my speculations.
You can live without those.
Enjoy the Robinson. I'm sure Jeb and his people won't.
Peace.