Jeb Bush 2012? Thanks, but no thanks!

Tucker Carlson interviews Jeb Bush in the current issue of Esquire magazine. After reading the article, I find Jeb to be the typical boring moderate Republican. In typical moderate Republican fashion, Jeb says repeatedly throughout the article that Republicans must put their principles in the context of today.

That is all well and good, provided one fully understands what the principles are in the first place. This is where I start to question Jeb’s credentials. Tucker puts forth the question to Jeb; "should McCain have opposed the bailout? Here is Jeb’s answer (emphasis added):

I don't know. That's a great question. It seemed he was just uncomfortable with the whole thing. Canceling the debate, then going back to the debate, calling for the White House to have a meeting with people whose ideas were already pretty entrenched, then not using the skills he clearly has...

I think [Obama] handled it very well. McCain didn't handle it poorly. He just looked uncomfortable. I don't think people felt necessarily that he had an answer. To answer your question, maybe if [McCain] had opposed the bailout based on some actual principles he could express, and that led to some solutions, that would have shown leadership and people might have turned to him in the election.

[…]

[Jeb defends the early bailouts, the ones implemented by his brother.] If there wasn't any support, given the intricate nature of all these credit-default swaps, you could have had an unraveling of the financial system. So I'm not sure there was another choice.

I guess Jeb is no better at finding actual principles than McCain was and that is enough for me to say "no thanks" to Jeb in 2012 or beyond.

Jeb continues on about the need for the Republican Party to have more 21st century players, but when asked by Carlson who does he like, he first picks Newt Gingrich. How’s that for 21st century? Jeb does get around to saying Jindal, but omits Palin. No surprise there either, Jeb lets his inner elitist slip out over a reference to Joe the Plumber.

Running Jeb Bush in 2012 will be a huge mistake for the Republican Party. His name alone would be problematic at best, but most importantly the Bush family seems to have a real problem with keeping with conservative principles. After 4 years of Obama’s socialism, America will need a strong and principled conservative to begin the difficult process of pulling America back towards capitalism or we could risk decades of a stagnant economy like Europe’s. Jeb Bush simply isn’t principled enough to do that.