Bush Camp Supports Romney

[_Jason Bourne]

Bush Camp Supports Romney

By Ronald Kessler

When former Bush White House aides ask Karl Rove for guidance on where to throw their support in the next presidential election, he tells them President Bush is neutral about the candidates. But Bush family members, friends, and key supporters are solidly behind Mitt Romney.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has quietly given his blessing to key staffers to migrate to the Romney camp, Sally Bradshaw, who was Jeb’s staff director and is now working for Romney, told me.

There are some striking similarities between George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. Both are sons of presidential candidates. Both are multimillionaires who made their money as highly successful businessmen. Both were state governors.


Bizarrely, both Romney and Bush were on male cheerleading squads in high school — Romney at the private Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Bush at the private Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass. Both were high school pranksters. Both men were in the class of 1975 at Harvard Business School and vaguely knew each other. However, as part of a joint program, Romney also obtained a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Both men’s lives have been touched by fatal car accidents. When he was a Mormon missionary in France in the summer of 1968, Romney, 21, was driving a Citroën in the rain on a mountainous road near Bordeaux with five other missionaries. As they rounded a curve, a Mercedes, possibly passing another car, veered over the median. The Mercedes slammed almost head on into Romney’s car at what police said was 70 mph. Viola Anderson, the wife of his mission president, suffered crushed lungs and died. Thrown from the car, the future governor of Massachusetts suffered a broken arm.

In November 1963, when she was a senior in high school in Midland, Texas, Laura Bush, then 17, was driving on a dark country road with a high school friend when she missed a stop sign. Her parents’ brand-new Chevrolet Impala slammed into a 1962 Corvair sedan driven by Michael D. Douglas, another high school friend, who was thrown from his car. He died at the scene.

Both Romney and Bush are deeply religious. Neither man drinks: Bush gave it up because it was impinging on his personal and professional life. Romney never took a drink because of his Mormon beliefs.

Bush and Romney are different in one major respect: their facility with the English language. Romney is the most articulate presidential candidate in modern times. He speaks in complete sentences and paragraphs, and his speech flows as smoothly and effortlessly as maple syrup.

Bush is the first to poke fun at his own malapropisms. Before speaking at a Radio and Television Correspondents dinner, Bush told his high school friend and aide Clay Johnson III, “I’m going to give the funniest speech you’ve ever heard. They have this tape of ridiculous phrases I used in the campaign. I can’t believe that a candidate for president said those things.”

At the dinner, Bush said, “This is my most famous statement: ‘Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning.’”

Those Jeb Bush allies joining the Romney team, along with Sally Bradshaw, include Ann Herberger, who was Jeb’s campaign finance director; former House Speaker Allan Bense; former Florida Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings; U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, who was his running mate in the 1994 election he lost; his former press secretary Kristy Campbell; and former state Republican Chairmen Van Poole and Al Cardenas.

[_harmony]

I'm not sure an endorsement from Bush will be a plus. His approval ratings aren't exactly in the stratosphere.

[_OUT OF MY MISERY]

I'm not sure an endorsement from Bush will be a plus. His approval ratings aren't exactly in the stratosphere.

I'm with you Harmony...One does wonder why Bush is pushing Mitty so hard and so suddenly they started pushing him.

Mitty/republican not a good mix....no the next President will be democrat....I don't think it will be Hillary or Obama either..

I am predicting it will be someone that has not said they are running yet...look for someone to come out of the woodwork and announce within the next few weeks someone unexpected....

[_moksha]

Mitt would be oil friendly.

[_OUT OF MY MISERY]

That makes sense...

[_Jason Bourne]

I'm not sure an endorsement from Bush will be a plus. His approval ratings aren't exactly in the stratosphere.

True. Just noted it for interest sake.

[_harmony]

I'm not sure an endorsement from Bush will be a plus. His approval ratings aren't exactly in the stratosphere.

True. Just noted it for interest sake.

What is Mitt's stance on the war? That's my hot button issue right now, and the one I judge all politicians by.

[_Yoda]

I'm not sure an endorsement from Bush will be a plus. His approval ratings aren't exactly in the stratosphere.

True. Just noted it for interest sake.

What is Mitt's stance on the war? That's my hot button issue right now, and the one I judge all politicians by.

He supports Bush.

[_Polygamy Porter]

I like bush, and my wife holds the priesthood nightly and morningly. Uhh huh!