Jeb Bush continues to shed business ties, board seats

Thursday January 1, 2015 6:55 AM

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, moving closer to a possible presidential run, has stepped down as a paid adviser to a for-profit education company that sells online courses to public-university students in exchange for a share of their tuition payments.

Bush’s decision is another in a string of moves he has made in recent days to shed business interests that have enriched him since leaving office in 2007.

Late yesterday, a Bush aide told The Washington Post that the former governor had stepped down from all of his business and nonprofit board memberships.

Aides said he wants to devote his time to exploring a return to politics rather than pursuing his business commitments.

Bush’s decision to extricate himself from his private-sector work is “part and parcel of a process he is going through as he transitions to focus on a potential run for president,” said his spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell. “This is a natural next step that will allow him to focus his time on gauging interest for a potential run.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2015/01/01/jeb-0101-art-g5tvl3pl-1.html

Hillary Clinton's 2016 Problem: Promising To Be The Third Term of Obama's Presidency
Donald Lambro | Jan 01, 2015

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton angrily condemned the bleakest results of Barack Obama's economy in a recent speech, but didn't dare say who was responsible for them.

"What would Robert Kennedy say about the fact that still, today, more than 16 million children live in poverty in the richest nation on Earth," she said in an address to an elite, well-fed crowd in a Manhattan ballroom at an awards gala to honor the slain Democratic presidential candidate.

"What would he say about the fact that such a large portion of economic gains have gone to such a small portion of our population," she continued, and so little to poor minorities that make up at the core of the Democrats' liberal political base.

Fearing a left-wing cabal is building a campaign to draft Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for the presidential nomination, Clinton is retooling her message to reconnect with a party that may be turning against her candidacy.

Other presidential hopefuls are waiting in the wings to challenge her in the party primaries: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. James Webb, Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders, a socialist, and maybe more to come.

Clinton's fiery address was filled with ultra-demagogic appeals to nearly every party interest group that could be up for grabs if Warren gets into the race.

"What would Robert Kennedy say to the thousands of Americans marching in our streets… with their eyes open and their hands up?" was one of the lines she used in an effort to rebuild the Clintons' claim on the presidency.

But her racially-tinged, class warfare rhetoric represented a double-edged sword. If poverty remains at unacceptable levels after six years of a Democratic administration, who's fault is that?

Clinton seemed content to let the economic facts speak for themselves, seemingly suggesting she would pursue a very different economic policy that would lift the poor and the middle-class -- the people Obama's economic policies have left behind.

Actually, Clinton left out poverty figures that were much worse than the narrower numbers she used in her speech.

Nearly five years after the Great Recession supposedly ended, close to 49 million Americans, nearly 16 percent of the U.S. population, were below the poverty line, the Census Bureau reported in September.

"Neither the number nor the [percentage] rate for 2013 was statistically different from 2012," the Census report said.

While a few states saw poverty decline a bit, most of the poor saw no improvement under the administration's policies.

"Between 2012 and 2013, the number of people in poverty in 42 states and the District of Columbia remained statistically unchanged," the Census Bureau said.

Meantime, household income has been on the decline, even in this so-called recovery, and hourly wages remain flat for most Americans. A workers' typical pay scale is now said to be at the same real level that it was 48 years ago.

"We've had [economic] growth, but it hasn't really reached everyday Americans," says Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "It's a lost decade, maybe more."

But if anyone thinks for a moment that Hillary Clinton has the answers to the economic issues she is exploiting for her own political advancement, forget it. For two very big reasons.

She's an unreconstructed liberal who's tied to Obama's domestic policies which she has supported since day one: Obamacare, climate change regulations, the economic job stimulus, normalizing relations with the Castro dictatorship and all the rest.

Yes, Bill Clinton is and will remain her chief adviser, but it's unlikely she would support the kind of centrist policies he embraced in the 1990s.

Party liberals remember that her husband's presidency included several major planks from the GOP's economic agenda: welfare reform, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and in Clinton's second term, a major capital gains tax cut that unlocked a wave of job-creating investment that drove unemployment down to 4 percent.

Clinton rode into office on a centrist-leaning, domestic policy agenda that was largely defined by the Democratic Leadership Council, an influential, pro-business, pro-trade, grassroots organization that he headed before running for president.

It was no secret in the West Wing, and among the DLC leadership at that time, that Hillary loathed this business-backed group that played an influential role in developing her husband's policies.

But there are other factors that make Hillary a less-than formidable presidential candidate in 2016.

She is not going to win the presidency with the kind of red-meat leftist rhetoric she delivered to the well-heeled audience at the awards gala. Nor without setting forth a clear agenda to get this economy moving again.
So far, she has not uttered one word about Obama's impotent economic policies or any hint of how she would deal with the underperforming, wage-stagnant economy she would inherit.

Despite the economy's third quarter, 5 percent growth spurt, economists say we will finish the year at a weak 2.5 percent GDP rate. That's not good.

Hillary enters the 2015-16 election cycle as a candidate who promises to give us the third term of Obama's liberal presidency: something a majority of voters in 2014 clearly demonstrated they do not want.

Like the rest of her party, Hillary is hopelessly addicted to a nasty ideological diet of higher tax rates, much bigger government, and a lot more regulation - all of which kills jobs, suffocates economic growth and enlarges poverty.

The last time she was put in charge of handling policy, it was the Clinton health care plan that was so unpopular, the Democratic-run House refused to bring it up for a vote in committee.


http://townhall.com/columnists/donaldlambro/2015/01/01/draft-n1937644/page/full

Jeb bush ? Why he may not be an idiot like his brother dubya but why would people want another bush in charge???

BECAUSE DEY GUN TAKE OUR GUNS!!! DERKA DERR!

Republicans remind me of the hardcore libs will always find something wrong with the oppostion party but wont find fault with their own leaders

Something of course with which the democrats are never guilt of... :lol:

If you think politics is bad in Australia, it's got nothing on America. Politicians on both sides are bought out. You've got hardcore neo-cons on the right, and incompetency on the left. There is no win.

There's no point treating it like a football game (my side vs. yours - see posts above) because there's no one to support. Why bother?

I know how bad us politics are . I got family over there . Both sides are bought off by big corps to do their bidding

Since 2010 the Republicans have basically been able to stop anything that Obama has tried to do. They gerrymandered a whole bunch of districts, which make it nearly impossible for the democrats to win back a majority on the lower house unless there's another wave election (like 2008).

They also elected a whole bunch of tea party nuttos who block absolutely anything Obama does (whether good or bad), and who then turn around and blame Obama for everything. The old tactic.

It will still be tough for the republicans to win the next presidential election, though. Romney actually got the largest vote amongst white voters since Bush Sr in 1988, but he lost due to changing demographics.

The only way the Republicans can win is by either supressing the vote of minorities or by repeating their 1984 Reagan vote amongst white voters. So far they've been winning in congress because the democratic base hasn't been showing up.

Will be an interesting dynamic for sure. If Clinton wins the presidential election but the democrats don't take back congress, Hillary will either have to compromise with a bunch of certifiable nutcases to get anything done, or the paralysis will basically just continue.

The United Sates is a Corporatocracy.

Both sides bought out by big business to maintain the status quo whilst the public is made to think there is actually an election going on. The people have no say. There is no democracy.

The differences between our political parties are narrowing too.

I enjoy the grand scale of the US presidential race, all of the carefully chosen language, the games. I'll try to follow this one in more detail than the last election race.

What company am i buying?

What annoys me is that there is a separation of church and state over there but the Christian right havr taken over politics . Why is arbotion a election issue when its always been a human issue

learn to spell, its not arbotion, its murder of babies.

Here we go.

This . We dont know the persons reasons to terminate the pregnancy . Im a card carrying catholic but I would never tell a woman that terminating a child is murder . Would you want a woman to carry a child from rape ?

Its not the babies fault its mother was raped.

Are you fucking serious ? Fuck me some people are fuck wits

Warning this is not a thread about Abortion, it is a thread about the US Presidential election. Do not hijack the thread, thanks.

I'm hoping for Elizabeth warren, don't listen to the right wing propaganda about her in that second article, she's the only candidate that's acknowledging the influence money has on politicians and for the most part is a populist.

Ofcourse that's also why she will get no money and have a hard time actually winning.

Yeah she'll get fucked over, like Ron Paul did in '12.



And the kicker is that their third parties have almost no chance of getting into any sort of power, so you're stuck between a douche and a turd.

Money corrupts and for one I want to see a electin here or os thats actually about issues instwad of what the money men want

South Park parodied it well.

Could you explain your last sentence?

A country that's $18 trillion in debt is the world's richest? Interesting statement.

Either way they're fucked, whether it's Billary or Bush Jnr #231.

There is no debt if the money is fake.

The just need to borrow more from the federal reserve who invent money out of nothing. It's all fake.

People still fail to grasp that national debt =/= credit card debt :lol:

She has apparently ruled out running.

This.

-PB

Jeb Bush finally gets backing for White House run from important Republican... his mom Barbara

By Christopher Brennan For Dailymail.com

Published: 01:52 EST, 15 February 2015 | Updated: 02:12 EST, 15 February 2015

Former First Lady Barbara Bush has made comments suggesting that her son Jeb could be president, backing off previous remarks that America has 'had enough Bushes' in the White House.

The Republican matriarch appeared via Skype at a literacy charity fundraiser event her second oldest son was holding for the Barbara Bush Foundation in Bonita Springs, Florida, where he used to be governor.

'Jeb, it’s Mom. Listen, what do you mean, ‘too many Bushes’?... I changed my mind!' she said, according to the Washington Post.

Bush had brought up his mother's statement in 2013, when she told NBC's Matt Lauer that there were other qualified candidates besides her children, right before she appeared via video link.

'Hey mom, can I get that in writing by the way,' the younger Bush, who has announced he is 'seriously considering' running for the presidency in 2016, said.

Barbara Bush, 89, who appeared next to former president George H W Bush, said, 'Our problems are so big that it doesn't matter what your last name is in America.'

Jeb Bush replied, 'Mother, I love you. You’re the greatest mother in the world.'

Jeb Bush, who has announced he is 'seriously considering' running for president, referenced his mother's 'enough Bushes' comment before she appeared and walked the remark back

Barbara Bush responded candidly that she did not think Jeb should run for president in a 2013 interview on NBC

Late last year the potential candidate's mother said that she had shifted her position on Jeb running to 'neutral'.

She said her previous comments about 'enough Bushes,' which were in direct response to a question about Jeb running for president, were to clarify that the political family does not feel a 'sense of entitlement', according to Bloomberg.

The last several weeks since Jeb's announcement that he is looking at the presidency have seen him begin raising money for his super PAC Right to Rise.

Events have included a $100,000 a plate fundraiser in New York at the home of billionaire Harry Kravis on Wednesday.

Jeb Bush, seen in 2012 with Columba, has been holding high profile fundraising events for his super PAC, Right to Rise

The former governor has become the presumptive front runner for the Republican nomination after 2012 candidate Mitt Romney said he would not run again.

One problem for Bush is the legacy of his older brother George W Bush, especially two wars that he began in Afghanistan and Iraq during his presidency.

Prepping for a foreign policy speech next week in Chicago, Jeb Bush said 'I won't talk about the past' in response to a question about the wars.

'If I'm in the process of considering the possibility of running, it's not about re-litigating anything in the past.'

The front runner status of both Bush and likely Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton have raised the idea that the 2016 election will be fought between their two powerful political families.

Jeb Bush will have to answer questions about his brother George W (pictured) and the two wars that began during his presidency

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2953529/Jeb-Bush-finally-gets-backing-White-House-run-important-Republican-mom-Barbara.html#ixzz3RjcxFvJW