National Review: Jeb must jump in - now!

He's denied any interest in running in 2012, but Jeb Bush is being urged on by the National Review’s Rich Lowry - in a column that lays the case for the former president's brother to run now instead of later.


The column is getting heavy buzz among opinion-makers this morning, and is sparking anew the "Jeb for president" boomlet.

Lowry makes his case in eight points, linking to a cover story in the mag's print edition that is all about the former Florida governor.

Among Lowry's contentions are that Jeb will have been out of office for a decade by 2016, a lifetime in politics during which his tensure as gov will have faded. Jeb will be old news by 2016 Lowry argues.

"By 2016, a bumper crop of Republican talent will be poised to storm the national stage," Lowry writes.

"Marco Rubio not only will be the hot new thing out of Florida, he’ll be seasoned. Chris Christie will be ready. A host of senators and governors — freshly minted in the 2010 elections, so it’s too soon for them to run now — will be ready to go. Jeb will not be such a predominant figure in such a robust field. The crop of prospective GOP candidates this time reflects the downdraft in Republican fortunes in 2006 and 2008. Jeb would loom all the larger for it."

Lowry’s last point is: "Waiting is almost always a mistake."

"It’s an axiom of presidential politics that you have to run when you have the opening, even if it seems 'too soon.' This is why Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were elected president and Mario Cuomo never was. Jeb’s opening is now — ‘too soon’ after his brother’s presidency, ‘too soon’ into his life as an ex-governor — and it will probably never quite be there again.”

"In short, if Jeb feels a call to run for president, it has to be 2012, not 2016," Lowry concludes.