Jeb! Tells New Hampshire Voters: I Can ‘Fix It!’

Republican Presidential candidate and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush  tells a town hall in Nashua, New Hampshire, “We’re dangerously moving away from each other” and “need to get back to a set of common purposes and common values.”

The former Florida Governor talked about his granddaughter, whose heritage comes from four different countries, stressing that the ideals of the American founding have nothing to do with where one originates.

Bush told a story about how when he was serving as governor, Florida was hit with a wave of tropical storms, causing a logistical and financial nightmare for his state.

“When I’m President of the United States, I will not blame Barack Obama for a single thing,” Bush said. “The day I’m sworn into office, it’s on my watch.

“It’s not about the people we elect, it’s about the people they are there to serve,” he said in advocating for the next President to demonstrate the mentality that their constituents come first. “I set up an elaborate system to make sure that I was constantly listening to people,” he said of his tenure in Florida as Governor.

The American people want a President that has the skills “to fix the mess that exists,” he said, citing the hacking scandals in the federal government, and one such example of the Chinese government stealing data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The Department of Veterans Affairs is another outfit that needs reform, Bush said. “The veterans didn’t get care, and people died. And only three people have been fired,” he stated.

“I promise you, I won’t blame the dog ate my homework on this one,” he said. “When I’m there, we’ll change it, we’ll fix it, because I know how to do this. A leader has to accept personal responsibility and then build the strategy and make sure that everybody is held to account.”

He pledged to be “focused like a laser beam” on fixing the mess in Washington, D.C.

The former Florida governor remains in a close fight for second place in the New Hampshire Republican Primary, with many estimates showing Bush polling in double-digits in The Granite State.