GOP needs to pump new blood: Column Sure, old-blood Jeb Bush can be a fine president; the GOP just has so many other options.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds | USATODAY

This past year, science found new evidence for an old theory — that infusing new blood into old people could make them younger and more vital. According to reports, "Scientists at Harvard University also discovered that a 'youth protein' which circulates in the blood is responsible for keeping the brain and muscles young and strong. The protein, known as 'GDF11', is present in the bloodstream in large quantities when we are young but peters out as we age."

Meanwhile, Stanford researchers are experimenting with transfusions of young blood to treat Alzheimer's disease. "Work in animals," writesThe Washington Post, "has shown that a transfusion of young mouse blood can improve cognition and the health of several organs in older mice. It may even make those animals look younger. The ramifications for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries could be huge if the same thing happens in people."

I myself experienced some anecdotal support for this over the holidays, as my father received six units of blood. Afterwards, he seemed much more lively, and my brother reports that he now has the appetite "of a 13-year-old boy on a growth spurt." So maybe there's something to this whole new-blood thing. For another experiment, maybe we should try injecting healthy people with tired old blood to see if they show signs of decrepitude.

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Which brings me to the subject of the Republicans and Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush is looking at a 2016 White House run, and it seems as if a lot of the Republican establishment is getting behind him. That sets up a pretty serious new-blood-vs.-old-blood competition within the Republican Party.

And there's nothing really wrong with Jeb Bush. By all accounts he was a good governor in Florida. He seems like a nice guy. And I have no doubt that he'd make a better president than, say, Barack Obama, though at this point in Obama's term that's setting the bar pretty low. Even the National Journal, which called Obama's past year "pretty awful," might agree.

But nice guy or not, he's old blood. Leaving aside the matter of the Bush name — though neither his 2016 opponents nor his 2016 supporters will — he last ran for political office back in 2002. He's fresh only insofar as he's George W. Bush's younger brother.

Meanwhile, the GOP has a lot of actual fresh blood out there. Governors such as Scott Walker, Nikki Haley, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal or Susana Martinez, or senators such as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul or Marco Rubio, as well as some other possibilities such as Carly Fiorina or Ben Carson. Their freshness is accentuated when you look at the Democrats' tired standard-bearer, Hillary Clinton, and perhaps even more-so when you look at the Dems' alternatives to Hillary, such as Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren.

This fresh blood would seem like the best chance to rejuvenate the GOP, a party that — for all its victories in 2014 and all its success in state races — still seems to many to be a bit sclerotic at the national level. So it seems kind of odd that the GOP establishment would throw all that away to back ... another Bush for the White House.

Old blood vs. new blood? The GOP needs to choose, and choose wisely.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, is the author of The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself.

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