"If we can’t find more than two or three families to run for high office, that's silly. I refuse to accept that this great country isn't raising other wonderful people." So said the matriarch of one of those families earlier this year – Barbara Bush – deflecting a question about whether a second of her children might run for president.

That would be Jeb Bush, of course, the son she and her husband, former president George H W Bush, had always thought was the more likely White House material until he was pipped to the prize by his brother. When George Jr left office in 2009 with his approval ratings in the Antipodes, the idea of Jeb aiming for the Oval Office seemed nearly silly.

Not so much now. The notion of the former governor of Florida running in 2016 gets more plausible by the day. Some Republicans are recoiling because Mr Bush is insufficiently conservative for their taste. They shouldn’t, not because he is more conservative than they think – although on some issues that may be true – but because he is someone who might possibly win.

In the current midterm elections the party has muted its more extreme conservative voices and fielded candidates in key races who can appeal to the middle. It will reap the benefits when voters go to the polls next Tuesday. They should take the same approach in 2016, which means sidelining polarising figures such as Senator Ted Cruz and nominating a grown-up. They know this already, which is why the name Mitt Romney is popping up again.

And Jeb. The former governor, whose consulting firm in Miami counts Barclays amongst its biggest customers, has already been putting himself out there in the midterms. He has campaigned alongside Governor Rick Scott, who is seeking re-election here in Florida, and for GOP candidates in several other states. His water-cooler rating then shot up at the weekend when his son George P Bush, who is himself running for a statewide office in Texas, told ABC News that Jeb was giving “serious thought” about running to become the third Bush to move into the White House.

Hillary Clinton in quotes Show all 11 1 /11 Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton After losing the 2016 election: 'To all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.' Getty Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On running for President in 2016: 'I'm going to decide when it feels right for me to decide. ... certainly not before then [the end of 2014].' AP Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On the Monica Lewinsky affair: 'It’s liberating to be able to reach the point in your life where you feel you can forgive. Everybody feels they have been trespassed upon and nearly everybody has trespassed on somebody else, maybe not intentionally.' Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On news and hair: 'If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.' Getty Images Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On being asked which fashion designers she preferred: 'Would you ever ask a man that question?' Getty Images Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On equality: 'Well I'm very conscious of how important it is for us to shatter that glass ceiling in my country. A country that has done so much for so many women and really has set the standard for women's rights and responsibilities, and I do want to see that glass ceiling shattered.' Getty Images Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On not winning in 2008: 'I think because I really didn't have a good strategy for my campaign. I didn't plan it the right way. ... As a candidate who was already so well known ... I don't think I ever said, 'Yes, you may have known me for eight years, but I don't take anything for granted. I have to earn your support.' Getty Images Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On self-confidence 'You have to be true to yourself. You have to be enough in touch with who you are and what you want, how you want to live and what's important to you, to make your decisions based on that. Sometimes that's very difficult.' AP Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On 9/11: 'Every nation has to either be with us, or against us. Those who harbor terrorists, or who finance them, are going to pay a price.' Getty Images Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On women around the world: 'If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish.' Getty Images Hillary Clinton in quotes Hillary Clinton On her political life: ‘I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.’ Getty Images

“I think it’s more than likely that he’s giving this serious thought and moving forward,” he said.

By all accounts what his family thinks matters to Mr Bush, who has said he will make a decision after Christmas. Most importantly both his mother and his wife, Columba, are said to have moderated their resistance to the idea.

Barbara Bush’s distaste for dynastic rule in America is well put. Her observation, of course, referred also to the widespread belief that Hillary Clinton will make another run for the White House and that the Democratic Party will duly pick her. Both she and Jeb face possible name-fatigue problems (didn’t we have a Bush-Clinton race in 1992?). But if Mrs Clinton is allowed to run again, who’s to tell Jeb that he can’t?

When attention turns fully to 2016 after the midterms are over, the Democrats and the Republicans will be in very different places. The former pretty much know who their candidate will be, while the Republicans don’t have a clue. If there are “wonderful people” – or credible people – out there aching to grasp the GOP standard, I don’t see them.