Jeb Bush Still Mulling 2016 Run, Despite Mom's Wishes

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is still mulling a run for the White House in 2016 even though his mother has urged him not to do it.

In an interview Wednesday with Miami CBS affiliate WFOR, the Republican said he will make his decision before the end of the year.

"I don’t wake up each day saying, ‘Now what am I going do today to make the decision?’" Bush said during a visit to a local charter school. "I’m deferring the decision to the right time, which is later this year.

"The decision will be based on, can I do it joyfully? Because I think we need candidates to lift our spirits; it’s a pretty pessimistic country right now. And is it right for my family? So I don’t want to even think about that until the right time, and that’s later on."



In a recent interview, former First Lady Barbara Bush said she believes that her son Jeb is "the best-qualified person to run for president." But she added, "I hope he won’t."

It wasn't the first time in public that Barbara Bush had all but encouraged her son not to follow in the footsteps of his father, former President George H.W. Bush, or his brother, former President George W. Bush. Last April, she said on NBC's "Today" show, "We've had enough Bushes" in the White House.

Asked about his mother's more recent comments, Jeb Bush said, “She promised me she wouldn’t keep saying this. But she is 89 years old and if you have elderly parents or grandparents, you know they speak their mind. There is not much stopping between thinking and speaking. I love her."

If he does enter the race for the Republican nominee, Bush could end up facing another political dynasty, the Clintons. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is considered the early favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination should she decide to run. In her effort to become the first woman to occupy the Oval Office, she ended up losing the nomination in 2008 to Barack Obama.

Bush calls himself a "practicing" conservative, but in order to get to the main general election event, he would have to beat out other more conservative Republicans, possibly including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

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