Jeb Bush admitted on Thursday that he “probably” should have thrown his hat into the Republican race for the White House and that his chance to win the presidency is probably now over.
The son of one president and brother of another told
CBS This Morning, “There is a window of opportunity in life for all sorts of reasons — and this was probably my time.”
But he told show host Charlie Rose that he had not made a decision against standing again in the future. He will still only be 63 by the time of the 2016 election.
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Bush admitted doubts about whether the politics he brought during eight years as Florida’s governor would be the kind that would have gotten him the GOP nomination.
“Given what I believe and how I believe it, I’m not sure I would have been successful as a candidate either,” he said. “These are different times from just six years ago when I last ran.”
Bush also insisted he will not be Mitt Romney’s running mate in the November election. “I’m not going to do it, and I’m not going to be asked and it’s not going to happen,” he said.
Bush, often candidly, balked at some GOP mantras, and said he might not be a good running mate because he wants to speak freely.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t have a voice. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to enthusiastically support Mitt Romney. I intend to do that, I’m doing it. But I’m not going to be a candidate with him.”
Bush has said in the past that he could accept tax hikes along with spending cuts to help solve the nation's debt problems.
“This will prove I’m not running for anything,” Bush said last week. “If you could bring to me a majority of people to say that we are going to have $10 of spending cuts for $1 of revenue enhancement, put me in, coach.”
Bush also had some praise for President Obama and his education secretary Arne Duncan, saying he agreed with some of the administration's reforms in education.
Bush mentioned that Duncan, a passionate school choice advocate, has instituted some 'provocative' reforms.
Bush said he doesn't “have to play the game of being 100,000 percent of being against President Obama…on the things that I think he’s done a good job on I’m not going just say no no.”
“I think Arne Duncan has done a good job and he clearly has the unmitigated support of the president,” Bush said. “We have a different approach as it relates to school choice and I think we need accelerate more provocative reforms.
"But having said that, anytime an elected official, in the world we are in today that appears so dysfunctional, challenges a core constituency not of their opponent, but of their own political base I think we should pause and give them credit. This is the place where President Obama has done this.”
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Bush slammed Obama's constant criticisms of his brother's policies, saying that some of Obama’s current foreign policy is “modeled after 43,” George W. Bush.
“A little tip of the hat might be a nice thing. I think it would be helpful politically,” Bush said. “Just a small acknowledgement that the guy you replace isn’t the source of every problem and every excuse why you are not successful I think would be helpful.”
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