Mitch Perry
Jeb Bush‘s presidential announcement day was a finely tuned 90-minute event at Miami-Dade College’s Kendall campus, but it went off script toward the conclusion when Bush began to speak about his mother, Barbara.
That’s when a group of immigration activists stood as one wearing green T-shirts that read “Legal Status is not enough,” and began shouting. That caused Bush to look away from the teleprompters and look up toward the left side of the auditorium.
After the crowd around the protesters attempted to shout them down, Bush addressed them and the rest of the crowd.
“By the way, just so that our friends know, the next president of the United States will pass meaningful immigration reform, so that that will be solved — not by executive order!” he improvised, as the crowd cheered.
The protesters then took off, eluding most reporters who tried to speak with them afterward.
Bush has been by far the most moderate Republican in the race when it comes to immigration, but not far enough for those Dreamers and other immigration activists. He has said he would work toward giving undocumented immigrants legal status, but not a pathway to citizenship.
The protesters’ outburst and Bush’s reaction were the only moments of spontaneity in a day built on creating an image him as a superior leader, thinker, and achiever during his time as Florida governor, which ended more than eight years ago. A full hour-long show (complete with the Chirino Sisters performing the Bee Gees) preceded his half-hour speech.
Toward its conclusion, Bush flashed some humility when addressing the crowd and the nation watching via cable news:
“And not a one of us deserves the job by right of résumé, party, seniority, family, or family narrative. It’s nobody’s turn. It’s everybody’s test, and it’s wide open: exactly as a contest for president should be,” he said, adding that the outcome is up to the voters. “It is entirely up to me to earn the nomination of my party and then to take our case all across this great and diverse nation.”
Speaking sans jacket or tie before an estimated 3,000 people at the biggest community college in the nation, son of the 41st U.S. president and brother of the 43rd, Bush knows there’s a bloc of Republican voters who will not vote for another Bush. He may have been reaching out them when he said he would take nothing, and nobody for granted.
Bush advisers have said that, like Rand Paul, Bush intends to campaign everywhere, including in black and Latino precincts that traditionally don’t often see Republicans. As part of his hour-long pre-speech program, there was diversity with the Rev. R.B. Holmes Jr. of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, who is black, and Berthy De La Rosa-Aponte, a disability advocate who spoke in English and Spanish.
Former Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, state Sen. Don Gaetz and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Jeb’s son, also gave extensive remarks. There was not one but two videos shown to whet the crowd’s appetite for all things Jeb.
So what were the highlights of the speech? Well, Bush says he’ll bring 4 percent annual growth to the U.S. economy and 19 million new jobs if is elected.
Like most of the Republicans on the stump, he’s promising to reduce regulation.
“What the IRS, EPA, and entire bureaucracy have done with overregulation, we can undo by act of Congress and order of the president,” he said. “Federal regulation has gone far past the consent of the governed.”
Bush was an activist governor for the conservative movement during his eight-year tenure in Tallahassee, and he said he’ll take those same talents to Washington, using the uber-hip term that he’ll “disrupt” things there.
In the one passage of the speech that has been interpreted as a shot at Marco Rubio and the other senators in the race, Bush said that executive experience is what’s needed to be president.
“There’s no passing off responsibility when you’re a governor, no blending into the legislative crowd or filing an amendment and calling that success.
“As our whole nation has learned since 2008, executive experience is another term for preparation, and there is no substitute for that.”
Known as an education reformer, Bush spent several minutes bragging about the policies he enacted in Florida that allowed vouchers and charter schools to flourish, promising to take down the teachers union if he gets elected in D.C.
On foreign policy, he did what is now the de rigueur slamming of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (adding Secretary of State John Kerry into the mix). He said he would “rebuild vital friendships, beginning with the state of Israel,” and he brought down the house when blasting Obama for his entreaties to Cuba over the past half-year.
“But we don’t need a glorified tourist to go to Havana in support of a failed Cuba. We need an American president to go to Havana in solidarity with a free Cuban people, and I am ready to be that president.”
Yes, that line did elicit the cheers that it was no doubt intended to elicit.
The 62-year-old Bush took nearly seven months from when he announced that he would be “exploring” a candidacy for president before he finally announced a few weeks ago that Monday would officially begin the campaign. Much has been made about how he hasn’t blown away the field. With his entry there are now 11 Republicans in the race, with another candidate, Donald Trump, to announce his decision about running Tuesday.
