Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush officially announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president Monday night in a speech that was laced with promises for getting rid of Big Brother and improving relations with America’s allies.
It was clear the Bush was referring to Israel, although he did not mention it by name.
He hammered on his record as Florida governor and ridiculed what he called the Obama administration’s policies of a “regulatory state” and more concern for the stock market than the economy.
Bush said that an administration headed by Hillary Clinton will be “more of the same” and declared:
The party now in the White House is planning a no-suspense primary, for a no-change election. To hold onto 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.
They have offered a progressive agenda that includes everything but progress. They are responsible for the…the relentless buildup of the regulatory state, and the swift, mindless drawdown of a military that was generations in the making.
His speech sets up the campaign between the Democrats and Republicans as one of conservative vs. liberal. Bush stated:
The presidency should not be passed on from one liberal to the next…. We will get back on the side of free enterprise and free people….
What the IRS, EPA, and entire bureaucracy have done with overregulation, we can undo by act of Congress and order of the president.
Federal regulation has gone far past the consent of the governed.
It is time to start making rules for the rule-makers.
Bush is considered the front-runner in the crowded GOP race for the nomination next year. He emphasized his experience as governor of Florida. Unlike most other Republican candidates, he focused on the economy, which is what most interests voters, and spent little time on foreign policy.
He chided President Obama and recalled “a few months ago, [Obama] thought it relevant at a prayer breakfast to bring up the Crusades. Americans don’t need lectures on the Middle Ages when we are dealing abroad with modern horrors committed by fanatics.
The former governor mocked what he called the Obama administration’s “phone-it-in foreign policy” and charged that the Obama-Clinton-Kerry team is leaving a legacy of crises uncontained, violence unopposed, enemies unnamed, friends undefended, and alliances unraveling.”
He said here two weeks ago, “I…support moving the embassy to Jerusalem as well — our embassy. Not just as a symbol but a show of solidarity.”
Bush’s ability to speak Spanish gives him big advantage that no Democratic candidate has. He mentioned his Mexican-born wife, the former Columba Garnica de Gallo and then spoke a couple of sentence in Spanish. He has an uphill battle for the support for Jewish voters, whom polls show would vote for Clinton by a 2-1 margin.
His speech can be seen and heard below at 2:14:40.