Jeb Bush in Lexington touts record, ‘optimistic message’

Touring to rebrand his campaign, Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush tried to differentiate himself Tuesday from what he described as the fear-mongering, ego-driven “big personalities” now dominating the GOP presidential race.

“I want to win," Bush told about 100 people at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Lexington.

"(But) I'm not going to run a campaign of grievance. I'm not going to appeal to people's anger,” he said. “There are good reasons why people are angry and frustrated. I totally get that.

“But for us to win, we have to offer a hopeful, optimistic message.”

Introducing Bush was state Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, who endorsed the son of a former president and brother of another.

“I want someone with a proven record, someone I can trust, someone I can believe in (and) someone with a level head,” Shealy said, touting Bush’s record as Florida’s governor.

After the noon town-hall meeting, Bush traveled to New Hampshire, where GOP voters will pick their choice for presidential nominee before South Carolina’s Feb. 20th primary.

Bush’s visit came as his campaign tries to hit the reset button: cutting staff salaries and downsizing its Florida headquarters operations to focus more on early-primary states. The onetime GOP frontrunner also has a new campaign slogan – “Jeb Can Fix It.”

Testing that message, Bush touted his record as a two-term governor, saying he cut taxes, vetoed spending and started an expansive private-school choice program.

That message, said supporter Michael Moore of Aiken, will help Bush win in the long run.

“What matters to me most is the track record,” Moore said, adding other candidates – including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. – have “presence” but do not have Bush’s experience. “It’s very good to be tested, and it’s better to be tested early on.”

Start slow, finish strong

Asked about concerns that Bush’s candidacy is faltering, two of his S.C. campaign co-chairs said they are not worried.

“He realizes that it's always better if you're going to start a bit slow and have a strong finish,” said Barry Wynn, a Greenville financial consultant and former S.C. GOP chairman. “There's a time when you need to adjust. He's adjusting.

“He feels there's a level of seriousness that will get into this campaign at some point.”

Wynn said Bush’s experience eventually will get more attention than his campaign style.

"No, he's not sizzling, and he may not be the glamor candidate,” Wynn said. But, he added, Bush “will sell very well in early 2016.”

Bush’s message to the audience Tuesday marked a shift in tone for his campaign.

The former Florida governor, who once Twitter-sparred with Donald Trump, avoided saying the bombastic recent frontrunner’s name.

“There are people who suggest that we could just deport everybody, and we could do it in two years,” Bush said, alluding to a plan Trump has proposed.

“That is a half a million people a month,” said Bush, who supports giving undocumented immigrants a pathway to legal status, not to citizenship.

“I mean, it's not possible, and it feeds on people’s legitimate anger, for sure, but it's not realistic,” Bush said, adding Trump’s plan would cost too much and “would violate civil liberties.”

Bush cast himself as a consensus builder and a counterpoint to “the big personalities on the stage that are doing it (running) because they want their ego to be satisfied.”

“I'm not talking about anybody in particular,” he quickly added. “I know who you're thinking of. I was thinking of (President) Barack Obama. I'm thinking of (Democratic frontrunner) Hillary Clinton. It's all about them.”

Bush also made fun of himself, embracing the wonkiness that he has been criticized for.

Telling a story about how he helped improve child-support payments to mothers and children, Bush said, “That is where I get the joy — in service. That may sound nerdy, I don't know.”

“That sort of ‘Awe shucks, I'm an ordinary guy’ thing is not a bad strategy for Bush, said Winthrop University political scientist Karen Kedrowski.

“If he can't join them (the anti-establishment candidates),” Bush must “find a way to differentiate himself from them,” she said.

Bush is “sort of a poster-child for establishment politics,” but his political family and fund-raising prowess so far have not catapulted him into the GOP lead, as once was expected, she added. “He has to be able to turn that negative into a positive.”

Former Haley Administration cabinet agency head Catherine Templeton, another Bush S.C. campaign co-chair, predicted some of the now-GOP frontrunners — Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — will “flame out,” as “big personalities” have done in the past.

“I would rather have the guy who follows all the issues to the very end, the guy who understands how to get it done,” she added, seeing Bush’s personality as a plus.

If that's “nerdy,” she added, “that's fine with me. ... I don't want a two-inch deep, sound-byte president."

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Jeb Bush in Lexington touts record, ‘optimistic message’."