Jeb Bush Encourages GOP to Diversify

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Republicans must recruit a more diverse slate of candidates, while denying that the 2008 elections were a landslide or transformational.

“We can’t be the old white guy party, it’s not going to work,” Bush told the conservative website Newsmax in an interview. “We can’t ignore large segments of our population and expect to win.”

Bush called on Republicans in Washington to organize a “shadow government” with individuals filling political and policy roles mirroring appointees in the Obama administration. Shadow governments are often typical in parliamentary democracies.

“People are sick and tired of the partisanship just for partisan’s sake but they aren’t sick and tired of a loftier debate about policy,” Bush said. The presidential sibling also encouraged President-elect Barack Obama’s administration to defy teachers’ unions on education policy, though he accused Obama of twisted rhetoric on tax cuts.

“It wasn’t a transformational election,” Bush said of Obama’s victory. “I don’t think that it means that the country has moved to the left, I think that the country is basically a center right country.”]

Watch the video of Bush’s interview below: