Presidential hopeful and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has a message for those who want to make an issue out of his last name — get over it.
"I love my mom and dad," Bush said at the opening of a round-table event in New Hampshire,
The New York Times reported. "I love my brother, and people are just going to have to get over that. That’s just the way it is."
The issue of Bush's last name and lineage, with a father and a brother who have both served as presidents, has been a topic he has addressed a number of times.
While the Florida Republican has made it clear that he has a lot of love for his family, he has also declared that he is his "own man" with his own ideas.
"I have a life journey, my own — one that sets me apart in some ways," he told the round-table group.
Later on, when talking to reporters, he said, "I'm a Bush, I'm proud of it," then added, "Like what am I supposed to say?"
Bush made a similar comment when he was
speaking in Iowa on Saturday.
"Many of you know me as George and Barbara's boy, for which I am proud," he said. "Some of you may know that W is my brother. I' m proud of that, too."
That pride in former President George W. Bush stood "whether people like that or not . . . They're just going to have to get used to it."
Americans have seen two Adams as president – John and his son John Quincy. And there have been two Roosevelts in the White House – distant cousins Theodore and Franklin. But never three with the same family name.
That fact seemed to resonate with Jeb's mother.
Two years ago, at the opening of the George W. Bush's presidential library,
Barbara Bush said that "we've had enough Bushes" when asked about the rumors that Jeb was considering making a run for the White House.
"He’s by far the best qualified man, but no," she said. "There are a lot of great families, and it’s not just four families or whatever."
In January 2014, former first lady seemed to double down on her comments in an interview with
C-SPAN, saying that she hoped he wouldn't run.
"I think this is a … great country, and if we can't find more than two or three families to run for high office, that's silly, because there are great governors and great eligible people to run," she said. "And I think the Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes — there's just more families than that."
But in February, she said she had
changed her mind about Jeb's run.
The problems facing this country are so big, Barbara Bush said, "it doesn't matter what your last name is."
When Bush began staking his own space, declaring in February "I'm my own man," columnist
Margaret Carlson wrote that "Jeb Bush is asking us to do the impossible — forget that he's the son of one president and the brother of another."
So Americans may be faced with the potential of a third Bush as chief executive, or a second Clinton.
In fact, there's been a Clinton or Bush on the presidential ballot every four years between 1988 and 2004.
But with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the worry is her candidacy and presidency will be marred by corruption just like her husband's was — former President Bill Clinton.
This concern grew in the wake of the recent revelations that she kept her
own email address on her own private server during her tenure at the State Department.
Following her press conference over the email scandal, some Democrats started saying that maybe they needed to have another candidate to consider.
"What do Democratic primary voters want to do now: Do they want to subject themselves to this, or do they want to look at alternatives?" asked Boyd Brown, a member of the South Carolina Democratic National Committee. "I'm already tired of talking about Hillary Clinton, and she hasn't even announced yet."
The worry spiked again with the recent reports that donations were made to the Clinton Foundation from countries that may have been trying to buy influence with Hillary Clinton when she was serving as the nation's top diplomat.
NBC's Chuck Todd said in the midst of that scandal that taking that money was "politically, just dumb and inept."
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