It's the Bush on the right who's running this time.
After months of campaigning for president, Jeb Bush is admitting he's really running for president. In making that announcement, he'll restrict his ability to keep raising tens of millions of dollars for his super PAC, since he now technically won't be allowed to coordinate with the super PAC—restrictions we can expect him to stretch the bounds of at every turn.
Bush's official announcement will come at 3 p.m. Eastern time in Miami, but in keeping with current style, he's already released a video and a logo that looks to have been worked up by an intern whose qualification was having been on high school yearbook committee. In the video, Bush tries to make the case for his leadership of Florida while striking a note of warmhearted optimism—he doesn't see problems, he sees solutions, etc. "I see a great country on the verge of its greatest century, and I'm ready to lead," he concludes. Rich talk coming from a member of the party that's blocked investments in America's bridges, roads, railroads, schools, sewer systems, and more.
But Jeb! will need all that optimism when he looks at his own campaign.
Other than raising the money, little has gone as he had hoped. He has been torn between defending and distancing himself from George W. Bush, been unable to assuage party activists uneasy with his immigration and education views, and run into a wall of opposition on the right. And now, as he prepares to make his candidacy official on Monday, Mr. Bush finds himself in a position he could not have imagined: Part of a pack of candidates, and the target of questions about his own competence and conservatism.
Case in point: George W. reportedly won't be in attendance at the big announcement, despite Jeb's repeated insistence that his big brother is one of his most valued and admired advisers.
Bush's frustrations promise entertainment, though, since he's realizing he may have to stoop to attacking his competitors in the Republican primary:
The Bush campaign sees Mr. Rubio as vulnerable on his Senate record, which is short on legislative success and includes shifts on immigration, and on his history of managing his finances. And they regard Mr. Walker, too, as susceptible to attack on issues on which he has changed his positions, according to the advisers. By hiring [new campaign manager Danny] Diaz, Mr. Bush wanted to send a clear signal that “the culture of the Bush operation will now be a Pickett’s Charge engagement campaign with his main opponents,” according to one Bush ally.
Pickett's Charge, you say? Okay, then ... it's definitely popcorn time.