MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) – Jeb Bush is betting his political future these days on the hope that pragmatism will trump conservative hostility in 2016.
Fresh off his first public tours of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the Republican White House prospect has settled on an early approach for dealing with skeptics on the right, casting himself as a practical but “principled conservative,” particularly when explaining his immigration and education positions that put him at odds with the GOP’s most conservative factions.
Bush often wraps his philosophy in scathing criticism of President Barack Obama. But the former Florida governor’s theme is clear: He wants to be the grown-up who ends the Washington “food fight” and governs to “fix things for everybody, not to win a political argument.”
“Washington needs principled, centered leadership, not leadership that tries to divide us,” Bush told Republicans in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Wednesday. “Our democracy doesn’t work when you jam it down the throat of everybody else,” he added. “It’s not always about winning and losing. It’s about forging consensus to solve some of these problems.”
Bush’s approach is a risky one in a Republican primary process where the GOP’s most conservative voters wield considerable influence. It also contrasts with many of his likely Republican competitors, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker among them, who take a more hard-line approach.