A tidbit buried at the end of a Romney adviser’s longish rationalization of why Mitt Romney may yet again run for the GOP’s nomination suggests Romney does not think Jeb Bush has what it takes to win the GOP nomination.
BuzzFeed reports:
According to one former adviser, the biggest political question Romney will be considering as he makes his decision is whether Bush will be able to make it to the general election.
“Look, Jeb’s a good guy. I think the governor likes Jeb,” the adviser said. “But Jeb is Common Core, Jeb is immigration, Jeb has been talking about raising taxes recently. Can you imagine Jeb trying to get through a Republican primary? Can you imagine what Ted Cruz is going to do to Jeb Bush? I mean, that’s going to be ugly.”
Whether one likes Jeb Bush as the potential nominee or not, it’s hard to imagine him feeling intimidated by a former president. He does count two of them as relatives, after all:
The adviser added that aside from Bush, Romney doesn’t believe any of the Republicans in the field are ready to take on Hillary Clinton in the general election.
“He’s not going to be intimidated by Bill Clinton sitting in the front row of a debate, looking at him,” the adviser said of Romney. “His dad has run for president. He’s run before.”
Still, to the source’s main point, add in genuinely conservative media’s critiques of Jeb Bush, along with those of Cruz, and perhaps others vying for the nomination, and it’s not hard to see Jeb getting tangled up in some ugly fights he’s not likely to win, let alone use to win over the traditional GOP base.