Entering race, Jeb Bush seeks to reclaim top-dog status

Jeb Bush formally announced his bid for the White House on Monday with a speech that sought to tie Hillary Clinton closely to President Obama and his policies.

Bush, 62, suggested in an address at Miami Dade College that Clinton would be untested in the Democratic primary and if she won her party’s nomination would represent Obama’s third term.

{mosads}“I, for one, am not eager to see what another four years would look like under that kind of leadership,” Bush said to roaring applause from a crowd that included his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush. “The presidency should not be passed on from one liberal to the next.

“The party now in the White House is planning a no-suspense primary for a no-change election. To hold on to power, to slog on with the same agenda under another name: That’s our opponents’ call to action this time around. That’s all they’ve got left,” Bush said. “America deserves better.”

Bush is joining a crowded field of 10 declared candidates pursuing the Republican nomination, and the former Florida governor has stumbled since announcing he would explore a bid for the White House late last year.

He flubbed questions last month about the Iraq War and his brother, former President George W. Bush. And his early exploration scared off few, if any, potential rivals.

On Monday, he sought to right the ship by not shying away from his family’s political history, but at the same time framing himself as his own man. He told the audience he met his first president on the day he was born and the second the next day, when he went home.

Bush touched on education and school choice, issues he is known for in the state but that have caused him grief with conservatives, who criticize his support for Common Core standards.

“When a school is just another dead end, every parent should have the right to send their child to a better school — public, private or charter,” Bush said. “Every school should have high standards, and the federal government should have nothing to do with setting them.

“Nationwide, if I am president, we will take the power of choice away from the unions and bureaucrats and give it back to parents,” he said. 

On immigration — another contentious issue among those on the right — Bush veered off-script to promise that “the next president will pass meaningful immigration reform,” but not through executive action. He made that remark after being interrupted by protesters in attendance.

Bush’s speech was preluded by an hour of mariachi music, speakers praising his bona fides among minority communities and remarks from Cuban-born Grammy-winning musician Willy Chirino, whose daughters performed songs in Spanish.

Bush, who is fluent in Spanish, talked about running a welcoming campaign that offers opportunities for everyone. Monday’s event sought to evoke support for Spanish-language communities, an increasingly important voting group Republicans have targeted in recent years.

“I will take nothing and no one for granted. I will run with heart. I will run to win,” Bush said. 

“He is the new America. He is the new Republican Party,” Florida state Sen. Don Gaetz (R) said of Bush in introductory remarks before the former governor took to the stage wearing an open-collar dress shirt without jacket or tie.

Bush criticized Obama’s recent overtures toward Cuba, as the United States moves to normalize relations with the island’s Communist government after five decades of enmity.

“We don’t need a glorified tourist to go to Havana in support of a failed Cuba,” Bush said to applause from an audience that included Cuban-Americans. “We need an American president to go to Havana in solidarity with a free Cuban people, and I am ready to be that president.”

One of the biggest hurdles for Bush will be in his ability to distinguish himself nationally among hopefuls with executive experience, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. And he’ll have to beat back a challenge from Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) in his backyard. Rubio has been  positioning himself as a young presidential candidate with appeal among minority voters and a hawkish foreign policy.

“Jeb Bush is the Florida Republican … who can win,” Gaetz said to cheers, in the day’s clearest shot at Rubio, a former protégé of Bush who described him earlier in the day as a “friend.”

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) slammed Bush’s “belief in his own superiority and infallibility” in a dual-language statement released to reporters before his speech.

In his speech, Bush sought to tie religious freedom concerns stemming from ObamaCare to Clinton, who scheduled her first press conference as a presidential candidate for shortly before Bush’s announcement. 

He also targeted the former secretary of State in saying the “Obama-Clinton-Kerry team” moved the U.S. toward “military inferiority” and suggesting he would step in as president to “rebuild our armed forces and take care of our troops and our veterans.”

“Americans don’t need lectures on the Middle Ages when we are dealing abroad with modern horrors committed by fanatics,” Bush said, alluding to the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Following his announcement, Bush will tour 

early-voting states around the country, including New Hampshire on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and South Carolina on Thursday. 

Next week he will head to Nevada where his son, George P. Bush, will host a pair of events with young people. The younger Bush looks likely to play a greater role in his father’s presidential campaign, raising his own profile above his current position as Texas land commissioner.

Updated at 8:23 p.m.