Jeb Bush offers 'hope' as key 2016 message in San Francisco fundraising stop
Political scion begins sketching campaign in San Francisco fundraiser
Sketching the broad outlines of a presidential campaign that is undeclared but well under way, Jeb Bush mixed familiar calls for lower taxes and less regulation with a message to fellow Republicans to stay upbeat and offer hope as their central message in 2016.
"Just a lot of reasons to be angry or grumpy and negative and then react to the overreach," the former Florida governor told a gathering of the nation's car dealers on Friday after delivering a long and scathing assessment of US President Barack Obama's time in office, domestically and on the world stage.
But, he went on: "We're not going to win votes as Republicans unless we can lay out a hopeful, optimistic message that's based in reality, that's grounded in a set of policies that are real, that people believe can actually happen. Hope and a positive agenda wins out over anger and reaction every day of the week."
Bush's appearance in San Francisco before an audience of several thousand was his first campaign-style stop since announcing last month via social media that he was actively exploring a run for the office held by his father and his older brother.
Seeming relaxed in the friendly setting of a strongly pro-business crowd, Bush spent half an hour offering his vision of a country renewed by a lighter governing hand in Washington, a dramatic overhaul of the education system and a more muscular foreign policy.
He was unsparing in his criticism of Obama, suggesting at one point the president's desire to pull back from military engagement abroad had resulted in the renewed rise of terrorism and the threat of another September 11-style attack on the United States.
"The implications of France," Bush said of this month's rampage in Paris by Islamic extremists, "should be ... that it could happen here and we need to keep our guard up. We can't just keep pulling back."
Bush, who has spent the last few weeks feverishly fundraising, made no mention of the large field of potential Republican rivals until asked in a subsequent question-and-answer session about a closed-door meeting on Thursday in Utah with Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee. Romney unexpectedly announced this month a desire to pursue a third try for the White House in 2016.
The meeting apparently did not dissuade either man from a race that could find the two political scions competing for support among the same base of establishment Republicans and business-minded donors. Bush said he and Romney - the son of a Michigan governor who ran for president - dwelled mostly on policy matters. "The awkward side of this," Bush said, "about running and stuff, we put aside."
While unstinting in his criticism of Obama, Bush also implicitly chided those in the party who have thrived on bashing the president, suggesting that opprobrium is no substitute for a substantive, forward-looking agenda.
At one point, consciously or not, he echoed one of the major themes of Obama's 2008 campaign when asked what major message Republicans could bring. "Hope," Bush responded, adding "it has to be grounded in a positive message, not a reactionary message."
