Jeb Bush:' I am not running for President' 
 
 Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush tells WHAS11 News he is "not running for President." 
 
 The Republican's name has been widely circulated in recent weeks as a potential contender in the 2012 race. A Jeb Bush candidacy would perpetuate the Bush political dynasty which includes the presidencies of his father and brother. 
 
 Bush is in Louisville to speak about education reform at the National Conference of State Legislatures. His Tuesday morning appearance is to highlight Florida's success improving students' educational performance, particularly Latino students. 
 
 Bush hosted a fundraiser on Monday in Louisville for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul, who is a critic of U.S. education policy being directed by the federal government, rather than in local communities and states. While Bush said that Florida's education success is the product of state initiative, he complimented President Barack Obama's contribution to education policy. 
 
 Introducing Bush to the conference, NCSL President Don Balfour called Bush a "true pro" who "did not abandon reforms in tough times, but reversed a generation of decline." 
 
 "We were in really bad shape," Bush said in his remarks to the conference, saying - at one point - the state did a better job of tracking library books than student performance. 
 
 "All kids can learn. Period. Exclamation point," Bush said to applause. 
 
 "If kids aren't learning, the fault is with the adults not the students," Bush continued. He said education is the key to solving social problems. ||||| After a bout of Jeb Bush 2016 speculation a few months ago, chatter has died down — intentionally so, I am led to believe. Bush’s team knows full well that the higher your profile and the more definitive your decision to run seems, the more fire you will draw. (Just ask New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.) But now Bush’s supporters are reportedly telling donors to keep their powder dry. Even more intriguing, “Mr. Bush is also planning to attend fundraisers for Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner on Sept. 18 in Chicago and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Coral Gables on Sept. 19. He has already helped raise money for a number of GOP candidates, many of them in states crucial to winning the 2016 nomination. They have included Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Florida Gov. Rick Scott.” 
 
 Former Florida governor Jeb Bush speaks at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner in May in New York. (John Minchillo/Associated Press) 
 
 If he does decide to run, Christie may find a dearth of big-money donors. Bush is better known, is more popular with this group and doesn’t have the bridge scandal hanging over his head. I don’t see how Christie, who has not rolled out a 2016 agenda or impressed many with policy prowess (although he did go to Mexico for the first time), remains viable if Bush runs. 
 
 Likewise, a Bush run makes Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) less likely to take the plunge. He wasn’t sold on running to begin with, and the loss of potential donors and a popular competitor who shares his reform agenda may convince Ryan (if he hadn’t been already) that he doesn’t need to run. And with Ryan, it really is about the ideas and policy. If another messenger comes along ready, willing and funded, he may very well be content to be in essence the policy shop for the campaign. (He is already expected to begin rolling out legislative initiatives from his Ways and Means chairmanship in 2015.) 
 
 And finally, a Bush run makes it less likely that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will run, or run successfully. Rubio may not want to challenge his mentor and, like Christie, could well find the establishment money scarce after the Bush money operation revs up. Rubio was already having problems, getting hit from the right on immigration and from the mainstreamers for the government shutdown. His gravitas problem becomes stark if he is standing next to Bush. And like Ryan, he is so young that he has decades ahead in which he could make a presidential run. 
 
 It is therefore possible that if Bush takes the plunge, he may clear out a number of so-called establishment candidates. Like Mitt Romney in 2012 and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008, he would then benefit from a divided field on the right. 
 
 A Jeb Bush presidential campaign has become more feasible as President Obama’s foreign policy has collapsed and as Hillary Clinton becomes the default nominee for the Democrats. Suddenly a grown-up who knows his way around the White House, has traveled overseas and has deep connections to South and Central America becomes more appealing to a lot of voters. His brother’s reputation has rebounded substantially, and the Bush name need not be toxic, as was once thought. In any event, like Clinton, Jeb Bush can argue that all candidates deserve to be judged on their own merits and not on their family’s. The “dynasty” problem obviously becomes less of an issue running against Clinton. The GOP, to be sure, with Jeb Bush as the standard bearer, would not have such a vivid contrast between old and new, but Bush is entirely capable of fighting the election on the basis of new conservative reform vs. the old liberal welfare state and foreign policy untrustworthiness. 
 
 Bush will face great skepticism on the right, but so did Romney. He will need to present a compelling agenda, but so does every candidate. The question remains, as it has since the beginning of the Bush boomlet, whether he has the fire in the belly for a run. If so, he instantly becomes a formidable candidate. ||||| MIAMI — Declaring that it’s nobody’s turn and everybody’s test, Jeb Bush joined the Republican race for president on Monday, as he sought to move beyond his family’s history even as he seeks to become the third Bush in the White House. 
 
 “Not a one of us [candidates] deserves the job by right of resume, party, seniority, family, or family narrative,” Bush declared. “It’s nobody’s turn. It’s everybody’s test, and it’s wide open — exactly as a contest for president should be.” 
 
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 In his adopted hometown before a multicultural crowd of long-time friends, Bush sought to re-introduce himself to the country as a relentless reformer who has gotten results, who eschews the politics of grievance and offers a more hopeful and compassionate brand of conservatism. 
 
 Berthy De La Rosa-Aponte, a Florida advocate for individuals and children with disabilities and one of several friends who vouched for Bush’s character and compassion before he took the podium, told the crowd the former governor “understands our lives, our needs, our struggles and our fears.” 
 
 His empathy — and cool under pressure — was tested toward the end of his speech when shouts echoed from the rafters inside the gymnasium at Miami Dade College as a group of DREAMers removed their jackets to reveal neon yellow t-shirts that spelled out “LEGAL STATUS IS NOT ENOUGH,” challenging Bush’s position on immigration reform. 
 
 “I agree,” Bush said. As the group was escorted out amidst rising cheers of “Jeb!”, Bush promised that “the next president of the United States will pass meaningful immigration reform.” 
 
 The momentary disruption highlighted one of Bush’s biggest challenges: reconciling his own support for immigration reform and a path to legal status, which doesn’t go far enough for the protesters, with a Republican base that wants a more strident stance against illegal immigration. 
 
 In officially announcing on Monday, Bush, 62, is ending a six-month exploration phase that allowed him to raise unlimited sums of money for the super PAC that will undergird his campaign but left little doubt along the way that this day was coming. 
 
 As he became the eleventh declared candidate in the crowded Republican field, Bush vowed to run hard in every state, and to maintain the same message throughout the long nomination process, rather than tacking to the right just to win the primary and then reversing course come the general election. 
 
 “I will campaign as I would serve, going everywhere, speaking to everyone, keeping my word, facing the issues without flinching, and staying true to what I believe,” Bush said. “I will take nothing and no one for granted. I will run with heart. I will run to win.” 
 
 He also set some bold goals — 4 percent annual economic growth under a Jeb Bush presidency (which he said would create 19 million jobs), and energy security for the United States within five years. 
 
 And he wasn’t shy about taking on his Democratic and Republican rivals, some by name. He dinged Hillary Clinton for speaking about conflicts, at times, between the progressive agenda and religious charities. And he took on both former Secretary of State Clinton and Obama for a “phone-it-in foreign policy.” 
 
 Sen. Marco Rubio was also not spared, with Florida State Sen. Don Gaetz, an introduction speaker, calling Bush “the Florida Republican who can win.” 
 
 In his own remarks, Bush avoided mentioning any of his Republican rivals by name, stating only that his experience as a governor is superior to those of senators who can shrug off responsibility and blend into a crowd. 
 
 “As our whole nation has learned since 2008, executive experience is another term for preparation, and there is no substitute for that,” Bush said. 
 
 Speaking at the largest and most diverse college in the country, Bush highlighted his strong connections to the Latino community. He reminded the audience of the sweeping conservative reforms he enacted as Florida governor and his commitment to governing based on free-market principles that will create economic and educational opportunities for people to “rise up.” 
 
 “We will take command of our future once again in this country,” Bush said. “We will lift our sights again, make opportunity common again, get events in the world moving our way again.” 
 
 He also took a hawkish foreign policy stance, blasting the Obama administration for leaving behind “a legacy of crises uncontained, violence unopposed, enemies unnamed, friends undefended, and alliances unraveling.” Despite the imperative of not reminding the country of his bellicose brother’s presidency, Bush promised to restore Pentagon budget cuts and ensure that America is more engaged in the world. 
 
 Unlike some politicians known for more electrifying, soaring rhetoric, Bush argued that he’s a proven leader who’s shown an ability to put ideas and tough talk into practice, pointing to Florida’s economic growth during his two terms, the education reforms he enacted and his penchant for vetoing spending bills. 
 
 “We will take Washington – the static capital of this dynamic country – out of the business of causing problems. We will get back on the side of free enterprise and free people. I know we can fix this. Because I’ve done it.” 
 
 Despite his presidential pedigree, Bush signaled that he will run a reform-minded campaign against Washington and its power class. 
 
 “We don’t need another president who merely holds the top spot among the pampered elites of Washington,” Bush said. “We need a president willing to challenge and disrupt the whole culture in our nation’s capital.” 
 
 Bush’s mother Barbara Bush attended the announcement, but his brother and father were not scheduled to be there — a decision that underscores Bush’s desire to present himself as his own man and candidate. The Jeb! logo that Bush revived over the weekend from his past campaigns also makes the point. 
 
 In his remarks, Bush only passingly referred to his parents; and even his words of gratitude for his wife, Columba, who usually serves as the overture to his stump speech, were condensed. 
 
 The announcement came as Bush tries to regain momentum. Despite raising an anticipated $100 million for his super PAC, Bush’s “shock and awe” strategy has failed to play out the way he told donors it would. His team now foresees a long, hard fight for the nomination that will require the former Florida governor, eight years removed from holding elected office, to win the hearts and minds of a primary electorate that seems more enthralled with younger, more fiery candidates. 
 
 “My message will be an optimistic one because I am certain that we can make the decades just ahead in America the greatest time ever to be alive in this world.” 
 
 From here, Bush heads off on an announcement tour that will take him through the first three states on the 2016 calendar. He’ll hold events Tuesday in Derry, New Hampshire, Wednesday in Pella, Iowa, and Thursday in Charleston, South Carolina.
– Jeb Bush was asked about his 2012 ambitions yesterday, and he replied in the starkest possible terms. “I am not running for president,” he told a reporter for WHAS11 in Kentucky. The remark seems pretty offhand, but it’s getting national attention, because of recent chatter about a Bush run. Asked why that was, he told the Wall Street Journal, “I haven’t a clue. I have not been running for a while and answer the question the same way every time.” Bush made the remark en route to give a speech about education at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Bush, who’s widely credited with turning around Florida’s education system, said reform has to be done on a state by state level, but with federal help. “This is one place where I think President Obama deserves some credit,” he added. A day earlier he held a fundraiser for Rand Paul, a critic of Obama’s education policy.