George Bush the Third: the New Kid on the Block

[Geee]

UK Telegraph:

George Bush the Third: the new kid on the block
George P Bush, son of Florida governor Jeb Bush, is beginning to spread his political wings as the third generation of the Bush dynasty.

By Philip Sherwell in New York
Published: 4:25PM BST 24 Jul 2010

Being called George Bush might not be the most obvious route to elected office, given the opprobrium heaped on the 43rd US president since he left the White House.

But a third bearer of that name has just taken a fresh step towards a career in American politics: George Prescott Bush.


His grandfather George HW was president for a single term, losing to Bill Clinton in 1992, and his uncle George W left office last year with approval ratings in the doldrums.

Now George P, the son of former Florida governor Jeb and his Mexican wife, Columba, has co-founded a new organisation, Hispanic Republicans of Texas (HRT), to promote and support Latino candidates for office in the Lone Star state.

Slick bi-lingual television commercials marking the launch showed how the handsome and clean-cut Mr Bush is a natural before the cameras in both English and Spanish - confirming the belief of many that, in time, he may become a powerful candidate to take the Republican banner forward nationally.

But the 34-year Texas attorney and property developer, a college football star who married his law school girlfriend Amanda, now a media lawyer, was not present in person for the group's formal unveiling in the state capital, Austin.

For he was recently sent to Iraq as an intelligence officer in the Navy reserves - a war-zone deployment that only further burnishes his credentials as a politician-in-waiting.

He burst onto the national stage at the tender age of 12, when he spoke at the 1988 Republican National Convention where his grandfather was confirmed as the party's presidential candidate.

And he was an articulate, assured and persuasive figure as he campaigned for his uncle in 2000 and 2004, emphasing his support for immigration reform - a policy popular with Hispanic voters, who historically prefer the Democrats, but not with many of the conservative faithful.

His father Jeb is also highly popular and is thought by some to be a possible presidential contender for 2012 or 2016. But George P.Bush has time on his side - and his appeal to a constituency that does not normally vote Republicans carries clear political advantages.

As one commentator on a conservative website observed "A Hispanic with degrees from Rice and Texas Law, a record of military service, backed by an organisation devoted to making Hispanic Republicans players in Texas politics, and with the last name Bush? Sounds like the kind of candidate... (who) might be able to win."

For George the Third, life as Republican royalty may yet outweigh the current liability of his name.

[Sabre86]

Another Republican who FR will vow to destroy.