Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been appropriately critical of President Barack Obama and has talked up Sen. Marco Rubio as a possible national candidate. But he seems to think Mitt Romney is too conservative.
On immigration:
The focus has been on that in these debates, and Governor Romney has used this as a means to connect with a group of voters that were quite angry, and it was effective. But now he’s in this, somewhat of a box. So I think the broader message is how you get out of it.
On the liberal canard that today’s Republican Party would be too conservative for Ronald Reagan:
Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, similar to my dad, they would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement. We’re in a political system in general that is in a very different place right now.
On his father’s tax increases:
[T]he budget deal my dad did, with bipartisan support — at least for a while — that created the spending restraint of the ‘90s…. helpful in creating a climate of more sustainted economic growth.
Far from helping Romney, the younger Bush brother may be out for what our Tom Bethell calls “strange new respect” for himself.
