Jeb Bush knocks Pope on climate change push He makes a little news during his foray into New Hampshire.

DERRY, N.H. — A day after pledging to run, and run hard, in every state, Jeb Bush started off with the relatively easy road through New Hampshire on Tuesday.

He signed a potato, loosened up in front of a generally receptive town hall, and did a sit-down interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity in which he played a word-association game about the other candidates (Marco Rubio: “good friend”; Donald Trump: “rich guy”; Ted Cruz: “very smart, fiery.”)


He also made some news, suggesting Pope Francis’ call for a global effort to combat policy change risks politicizing religion.

“I hope I’m not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home, but I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope,” said Bush, a devout Catholic. He added that he wanted to see exactly what the pope recommended “before I pass judgment, but I think religion ought to be about making us better as people, less about things [that] end up getting into the political realm.”

Tomorrow brings tougher territory.

On Wednesday, Bush will be in Iowa for an evening gathering in Pella. He has faced deep skepticism there from the more conservative GOP base that finds his moderate views on immigration and Common Core unacceptable, and hasn’t spent much time in the state yet.

But on Tuesday, he got to glide off his generally well-received Miami announcement speech in a state that is more welcoming to some of Bush’s more moderate Republican stances and figures large in his campaign strategy: as the first-in-the-nation primary state, with votes following only Iowa’s caucuses, it presents Bush’s best opportunity for a strong early showing.

“Can I make one more comment?” Bush said as the event wrapped up. “I totally blew it, this is my first day, so I’m a rookie at this … I want your vote.”

And for the moment, he’s considered the front-runner here, though in such a crowded field, no one is a shoo-in, and about a dozen protesters holding signs with slogans like “Read my lips: No more Bushes” were in attendance. But there were no major disruptions, and some attendees left saying they arrived with low expectations but had been impressed, even if unready to commit. Bush joked with a voter that he expects they’ll meet “20 more times.” And he talked up his experience as a two-term governor of Florida — a state, he said, that politically “looks more like New Hampshire than Texas.”

In an hourlong town hall, held in a narrow, three-story opera house, Bush, in his shirtsleeves, spent considerable time talking about entitlement reform and the need to fix programs like Social Security, something he noted his brother tried, and “got totally wiped out.” But on those big-ticket issues, he said, both parties need to find common ground.

“We have to reweave the web of civility,” he said, a message that plays well in a state where firebrand conservatives have not done as well. “I have deep disagreements with liberal Democrats, but I don’t assume they have bad motives.”

And on national security issues, he said, “I would like to get back to the bipartisan consensus on foreign policy,” where everyone understands “if we engage, it’s not to create war, it’s to create peace.”

The event, however, got off to a slow start with Bush taping the Fox interview, in full view of attendees, with Bush and Hannity awkwardly sitting with their backs to the room, as town hall-goers craned to hear.

During the interview, set to air on Tuesday night, Bush was given another chance to take on questions about his brother’s national security legacy. Several weeks ago, he spent days fumbling answers to whether he would have invaded Iraq given today’s knowledge of intelligence failures. He was better-prepared this time, when asked whether he would support the enhanced interrogation techniques that occurred during his brother’s time in office.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he said, as part of a wide-ranging interview that also hit on subjects like immigration reform and same-sex marriage. (On the latter, he said he hopes the Supreme Court rules in favor of traditional marriage but he doesn’t believe in discrimination based on sexual orientation, a line that earned applause.)

On interrogation, he continued: “I don’t think we need it. It was appropriate at the time, given the uncertainty, we were under attack. … It was also appropriate to change the policy.”

He also tread lightly when asked about Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“I think she’s smart, I think she’s tough, I’m not discounting her ability to be a candidate,” he said. But, he added as he blasted her time as secretary of state, “I don’t know what her successes are.”

As for running against fellow Floridian Rubio, to whom Bush was once a mentor: “It’s a little awkward when you have a good friend that’s running for the same position. But that’s just the way it is.”

In the interview that aired Tuesday night, Bush also told Hannity he would repeal President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration, going a step further on the subject than he has in other interviews. He indicated he would replace those policies with immigration reform.

The candidate plans to take his tour to South Carolina later this week, after the Iowa stop. As he left the event, mobbed by reporters and attendees, he tried to suggest that he wasn’t playing favorites by visiting New Hampshire first.

“It’s the first-in-the-nation primary,” he replied, when asked by POLITICO why he visited New Hampshire first. Asked why he wouldn’t go in order and visit the first-in-the-nation caucus state first, he replied, “I’m going to Iowa tonight. I love all my early primary states the same.”