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Romney warned Jeb in January 2015 that he had no chance in 2016, but Jeb wouldn't listen
Last edited Wed Jan 6, 2016, 10:32 AM - Edit history (1)
He's never been a good listener.
A lot of us recall that "private meeting" between Romney and Jeb Bush last January, where we suspected that Jeb threw his weight around and pushed Romney out of the picture. A new book has many details from that closely guarded meeting.
Jeb had already starting vacuuming up Romney's advisers. Shock 'n Awe, remember? Yeah, that is a popular Bush Family saying, as we recall.
From Sean Illing at Salon, January 5, 2016
(Credit: Reuters/James Lawler Duggan/AP/Charles Dharapak/Photo montage by Salon)
It turns out even Mitt Romney knew Jeb Bush couldn’t win in 2016.
The former Republican nominee opened up in an interview with Dan Balz and Phillip Rucker of the Washington Post last week, and he was surprisingly candid about his friend and colleague, Jeb Bush. “A Bush-versus-Clinton head-to-head would be too easy for the Democrats,” Romney admitted to the reporters.
Jeb’s problem was not so much his fitness for office but the looming shadow of his brother. “I like Jeb a lot, I think he’d be a great president,” Romney said, “but I felt he was unfairly but severely burdened by the W. years – and when I say the W. years, it’s not only what happened to the economy, but the tragedy in Iraq.”
Romney recalled his sober remarks to Bush in a private conversation in January 2015: “Jeb, to be very honest, I think it’s very hard for you to post up against Hillary Clinton and to separate yourself from the difficulty of the W. years and compare them with the Clinton years.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, Romney said Jeb’s response was mostly dismissive: “He (Jeb) said he was going to make his campaign about the future, not about the past.”
“I didn’t say anything at that point,” Romney remembered thinking, “But as he left, I said to myself, ‘Gosh, in my opinion, it’s not going to be as easy to make that separation as I think he gives the impression it will be.’ One of the few things I predicted that turned out to be true.”
It’s a testament to the insulating powers of groupthink that no one on Jeb’s team listened to Romney or had the foresight to know how doomed this experiment was from the beginning. Everyone not named Bush could see the slow-motion trainwreck that was his future presidential campaign. And yet Bush walked blithely into the race, convinced it was his time and his turn.
The former Republican nominee opened up in an interview with Dan Balz and Phillip Rucker of the Washington Post last week, and he was surprisingly candid about his friend and colleague, Jeb Bush. “A Bush-versus-Clinton head-to-head would be too easy for the Democrats,” Romney admitted to the reporters.
Jeb’s problem was not so much his fitness for office but the looming shadow of his brother. “I like Jeb a lot, I think he’d be a great president,” Romney said, “but I felt he was unfairly but severely burdened by the W. years – and when I say the W. years, it’s not only what happened to the economy, but the tragedy in Iraq.”
Romney recalled his sober remarks to Bush in a private conversation in January 2015: “Jeb, to be very honest, I think it’s very hard for you to post up against Hillary Clinton and to separate yourself from the difficulty of the W. years and compare them with the Clinton years.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, Romney said Jeb’s response was mostly dismissive: “He (Jeb) said he was going to make his campaign about the future, not about the past.”
“I didn’t say anything at that point,” Romney remembered thinking, “But as he left, I said to myself, ‘Gosh, in my opinion, it’s not going to be as easy to make that separation as I think he gives the impression it will be.’ One of the few things I predicted that turned out to be true.”
It’s a testament to the insulating powers of groupthink that no one on Jeb’s team listened to Romney or had the foresight to know how doomed this experiment was from the beginning. Everyone not named Bush could see the slow-motion trainwreck that was his future presidential campaign. And yet Bush walked blithely into the race, convinced it was his time and his turn.
Jeb swarmed out of his bunker today to refute Romney's version of "the meeting":
(AP/Terry Renna) via WP
.....
A Washington Post article published online Sunday quoted Romney detailing a Jan. 22 meeting at the former nominee's Utah home.
As The Post reported:
Bush, a former governor of Florida, declined several requests by The Post to share his version of events.
Appearing Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," he insisted that he has the best chance of defeating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in November.
"I think you need to make the case that I could beat Hillary Clinton," he said. "The conversation with Mitt Romney brought back, you know — a private conversation — brought back how I would have answered that. Which is, I have a proven record, you cannot beat Hillary Clinton, who has no record or a record of failure, with someone who doesn’t have a record at all. And that was the case I made to Mitt. That’s the case I made to you all and to people here in New Hampshire. I have a proven record, a conservative record that brings people toward our cause rather than push them away."
A Washington Post article published online Sunday quoted Romney detailing a Jan. 22 meeting at the former nominee's Utah home.
As The Post reported:
Romney told Bush about the private polls that showed him performing well in the early voting states. “It’s opened up a door that I didn’t think would be open to me,” he recalled telling Bush.
Romney also said he confronted Bush with his fears about his candidacy: “Jeb, to be very honest, I think it’s very hard for you to post up against Hillary Clinton and to separate yourself from the difficulty of the W. years and compare them with the Clinton years.” He said Bush responded by saying that “he was going to make his campaign about the future, not about the past.”
“I didn’t say anything at that point,” Romney recalled. “But as he left, I said to myself, ‘Gosh, in my opinion, it’s not going to be as easy to make that separation as I think he gives the impression it will be.’ One of the few things I predicted that turned out to be true.”
Bush, a former governor of Florida, declined several requests by The Post to share his version of events.
Appearing Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," he insisted that he has the best chance of defeating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in November.
"I think you need to make the case that I could beat Hillary Clinton," he said. "The conversation with Mitt Romney brought back, you know — a private conversation — brought back how I would have answered that. Which is, I have a proven record, you cannot beat Hillary Clinton, who has no record or a record of failure, with someone who doesn’t have a record at all. And that was the case I made to Mitt. That’s the case I made to you all and to people here in New Hampshire. I have a proven record, a conservative record that brings people toward our cause rather than push them away."
Umm, say what? Does any of that make sense? Jeb wants US to 'make the case that he can beat Hillary Clinton', because he damn well can't do it himself. Only one problem, Jeb. We are not "The Help", to make life easier for you.
And, every ill-conceived, meat-headed utterance he has made during this farce of a campaign has done nothing but push people away. Is this guy so far around the bend that he's finally in outer orbit somewhere?
Well now, what's not hard to miss in all of this is that Romney just got himself squarely on Jeb's #@$& list.
Maybe Jeb just needs an antacid and an extended stay in Kennebunkport with Ma Bush.
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I agree no one should listen to Mittens. 