Ready For A ’92 Redo?

Written by Gary L. Bauer

Forty-eight hours after Hillary Clinton relaunched her presidential campaign, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush formally declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. (The governor began speaking moments ago and I’ll comment on his remarks tomorrow.)

The last time America faced a choice between Bush and Clinton was 1992. Anyone excited about a decades-old redo?

That question may dog both of the presumed party frontrunners. As CNN noted today:

“A 2016 campaign between Bush and Clinton would undoubtedly be clouded by questions about legacy, nepotism and the vitality of a political system seemingly dominated by a pair of powerful families with close ties to wealthy elites in Washington and on Wall Street . . . challenging the maxim that presidential campaigns are about the future rather than the past.”

By the way, a recent poll found that 62% of Americans felt that Jeb Bush “represents the past,” while only 45% said the same of Hillary Clinton. That “future gap” should be a red flag.

Here’s another problem for Jeb Bush: He has been out of office for so long that he may be weaker in his home state than many pundits realize. According to an analysis of the Florida voter rolls:

“Nearly three-quarters of Florida’s 12.9 million currently registered voters have never even seen Bush’s name on a ballot. . . . By contrast, 92 percent of Floridians who voted when Marco Rubio was last on the ballot, in 2010, are still registered.”