by Mark Silva
Jeb Bush, son of one Republican president and brother of another, suggests that his party's recent victories in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey are sending a powerful message that Democrats aren't totally getting -- but also says that President Barack Obama, "the most liberal president... in modern times,'' has caught an early break in receiving that message now.
Bush, former two-term governor of Florida and a continuing voice in education reform nationally, appeared on Bill Bennett's Morning in America radio show this week. Bennett was secretary of education in President Ronald Reagan's second-term Cabinet, and he served as "drug czar'' during the term of Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush.
Bush was asked about any pattern in the special election in Massachusetts that seated a Republican in the Senate and the governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey last year that also seated Republicans.
"The pattern is that American people, across the ideological spectrum, are deeply disturbed by the rapid advance of an agenda that really is foreign to mainstream America,'' Bush said, adding that it also "takes good candidates'' to win, and each state had them. They ran against Washington, he said, "and that matters.''
"America is a center-right country,'' Bush said. "President Obama, you know, is a liberal... The very fact that the term is not used anymore -- the term progressive is used -- is pretty telling, I think, that people don't want to be known as liberal... He is the most liberal president we have had in modern times.''
Obama has caught an early break, however, Bush says.
"If he does show humility and does try to find common ground... there are Republicans who will sign up for that,'' Bush said. "I think the Massachusetts election is a huge opportunity for the president, if he seizes it... He probably would have waited for an electoral landslide in November to get the lesson... He has gotten it early.''
That said, Bush also is a big fan of the education reforms which Obama's own education secretary, Arne Duncan, is pressing. The Obama administration's "Race to the Top'' is offering more than $4 billion to states that develop programs for improving student peformance and evaluating teachers based on that improvement.
"I think Sec'y Duncan is the best choice the country could have gotten,'' Bush said, touting measurement of student performance and holding teachers accountable for it as keys to progress. Bush, chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, has traveled the country encouraging fellow Republicans to develop new agendas.
Comments
More crap from the biggest idiots (Bush family) in Republican/Teabagger land.
The Wingnuts say this (most liberal) about EVERY Dem president. Heck, they were saying this before Obama even took office....and they said it about Clinton....and Carter....and LBJ.....and JFK..
I could care less what Jebby has to say about anything.
Posted by: HHH | January 26, 2010 4:17 PM
Not interested in any opinion from another Bush. I wish that family would just go away they've caused enough problems with this country.
Posted by: Tim | January 26, 2010 4:33 PM
Had Jeb’s brother, Georgey Jr, been honest about his agenda in 2000…… Would anyone other than the nutty Teabaggers voted for him?
Interesting. I am convinced that, had Bush Jr clearly said what he was going to do as a president -you know, invade countries that were not a threat, lie about it, order the torture of detainees, suspend Habeas Corpus, etc.- he would have lost.
Posted by: ShelleyS | January 26, 2010 4:40 PM
Hey Jebidiah---
Guess you don't consider Franklin D. Roosevelt as having lived in "modern times".
Posted by: ornery | January 26, 2010 5:37 PM
Someone needs to tell Jeb that his brother--W. Bush--the worst president in the history of America--had neither humility nor tried to ever find common ground. Also, didn't Bill Bennett take millions of American taxpayer dollars to "build" charter schools that lasted only the required two years in order to rake in and keep the money? Bill Bennett is one of the biggest BSers on the planet. Jeb Bush and Bill Bennett together. Ick to the millionith degree.
Posted by: Vivian | January 26, 2010 6:39 PM
HHH,
You have a point - listen to this crap "I think Sec'y Duncan is the best choice the country could have gotten,''
Posted by: Terry | January 26, 2010 6:52 PM
Jeb Bush was a great governor here in the state of Florida and he is spot on for identifying this President as the most liberal ever. Afer all, this President's aim is wealth redistribution...in a word, THEFT!
Posted by: Albo58 | January 26, 2010 7:35 PM
You have a point - listen to this crap "I think Sec'y Duncan is the best choice the country could have gotten,''
Posted by: Terry
Correct. That "left no child behind" was so successful too! We have so many great leaders, one after another, running the educational department. I guess those tests are worthless. . .
Posted by: HmongRodneyKing | January 26, 2010 9:35 PM
Ornery, Obama makes FDR look like Ronald Reagan. Obama attacks business, capitalism, growth, success. FDR did not do that.
But not only is Obama the most liberal or far left, he also is the most unAmerican and by far and away the biggest liar and narcissist ever!
Posted by: John D | January 26, 2010 9:49 PM
RodneyKing,
"No Child Left Behind" is a failure. Why did Ted Kennedy pass that bill? Why is the federal gov't involved in K-12 education in the first palce? Public education was better in this country before there was a Department of Education.
Posted by: Terry | January 26, 2010 10:36 PM
"If he does show humility and does try to find common ground... there are Republicans who will sign up for that,'' Bush said. "I think the Massachusetts election is a huge opportunity for the president, if he seizes it... He probably would have waited for an electoral landslide in November to get the lesson... He has gotten it early.''
What Jeb fails to see is... The rest of the country is waiting their turn to send THEIR message and will never forgot what this LIBERAL (yes, I said it, to bad) has done and where he is taking this country, in a direction that they don't want be taken.
Posted by: MAJMark | January 27, 2010 12:05 AM
Case-in-point:
Under the Bush Administration, 94% of all mortgages were paid on time.
Under panty waist's administration...record foreclosures and only 86% of all mortgages are being paid on time.
This is a Robin Hood presidency....and
the American working class tax payers are revolting at the voting booth. Jeb is right.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | January 27, 2010 2:32 AM
john d your talking about the virgin palin arnt you?
Posted by: royce | January 27, 2010 6:03 AM
Royce: no, I am not. Anyway, that would be you're, not your and it would be aren't, not arnt.
Typical lefty.
Posted by: John D | January 27, 2010 11:18 AM
Catch up Jeb, I think the President doesn't consider himself a liberal - he considers himself a Progressive and there is a big difference.
Posted by: vla | January 27, 2010 11:31 AM
Jeb Bush's pro-Spanish, pro-illegal alien, pro-amnesty agenda in Florida is there for all to see. The Bush-Machine never ceases to amaze.
Posted by: 3pieknow | January 27, 2010 5:23 PM