http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/jeb-bush-escapes-unscathed-from-the-conservative-denFebruary 27, 2015
Jeb Bush Escapes Unscathed From the Conservative Den
By John Cassidy
Friday was the second day of the annual CPAC jamboree, where conservative activists go to cheer members of the Paul family and jeer at Republican politicians whom they regard as insufficiently devoted to the faith. From the start of this year’s meeting, which is being live streamed on conservative Web sites, it has been clear that many of the attendees, and some of the presenters, too, regard Jeb Bush as someone who falls into the “insufficiently devoted” category—members of which are often referred to as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). On Thursday, a packed crowd gave a rousing reception to Scott Walker, the up-and-coming governor of Wisconsin, who looks, at this early stage in the primary process, like Bush’s strongest rival. Whenever someone mentioned Bush’s name, boos rang out.
On Friday morning, the Bush-baiting continued. First into battle was Laura Ingraham, the talk-show host. “Why don’t we just call it quits,” she asked, during a breakfast-time appearance, “and Jeb and Hillary can run on the same ticket? I mean, going through the list of things they agree on: Common Core, amnesty, giving Obama fast-track trade authority, allowing the trade deals with China, the surveillance culture. So I’m designing the bumper sticker. It could be, ‘Clush 2016: What difference does it make?’ ”
After a couple of ho-hum speeches from Rick Perry and Marco Rubio, two of the would-be G.O.P. candidates in 2016, Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee, took the stage. Many CPAC partisans regard the R.N.C. as the soggy, corporate-funded enemy within (which could also serve as a shorthand description of their feelings about the Bush family), but Priebus was there to be friendly. “There will be no coronation in the Republican Party,” he assured the crowd. “If you want to win the nomination, you’re going to have to earn the nomination.” Then came Donald Trump, who appeared to have spent the flight down to D.C. doing some handicapping. “Jeb Bush—he’s in favor of Common Core,” Trump said blithely. “He’s weak on immigration. I don’t see him winning.”
Many of the attendees would dearly love to believe that Trump is right in his analysis. He was followed by one of their heroes, Senator Rand Paul, who already seems to have been running for President forever. Paul didn’t address Bush directly: he didn’t have to. By the time he had taken some potshots at Hillary Clinton, promised to deliver the biggest tax cut in American history, and noted that America needed new leadership, elements of the crowd were chanting, “President Paul! President Paul!”
There was a lot of speculation about what sort of reception Bush would receive when he spoke in the early afternoon. The Washington Times had published a report about a possible walkout. At the last moment, Bush’s staff had switched the format of his appearance from a speech to a twenty-minute Q.-and-A. session with Sean Hannity, the Fox News host. The change seemed like a sign of nervousness in his camp or, perhaps, a reaction to the widespread panning that his last big speech, about foreign policy, received.
It turned out to have been a smart move. Hannity was polite and respectful, and Bush appeared more relaxed taking questions than he had been while reading out loud. As the two of them took the stage, some Paul supporters did walk out, but the vast majority of the crowd stayed and listened to Bush describe himself as a “practicing reform-minded conservative.”
Some of those who remained weren’t convinced. When Hannity brought up immigration they booed, prompting Bush to quip, “I’m marking you down as neutral, and I want to be your second choice.” It was a good line, and Bush delivered other zingers too. Asked to respond to the words “Hillary Clinton,” he replied “foreign fund-raising,” a barbed reference to a Washington Post story, published earlier this week, reporting that the Clinton Foundation raised money from overseas governments during Hillary’s tenure as Secretary of State. When Hannity said “Barack Obama,” Bush replied “failed President.”
These gibes earned Bush some cheers. More importantly, though, he didn’t make any enemies, or any new ones at least. Indeed, he made a pretty convincing case that he is a committed conservative. (A couple of weeks ago, I made the same argument.) As governor of Florida, he reminded his audience, he cut spending, bequeathed his successor a budget surplus, and introduced the first statewide school-voucher system in the country. In a bow to supply-side economics, he said that he believed that tax cuts could create revenue. When the discussion turned to foreign policy, he welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress, saying, “We need to make clear that there is no light between us and Israel.” And then, shifting back to Obama, he accused the President of trampling on the Constitution and disrespecting America’s heritage. It wasn’t exactly Rudy Giuliani questioning Obama’s religion and love of country, but it earned Bush more applause, as Hannity wrapped things up.
The immediate response from journalists who watched the exchange was positive. “That had the potential to be disastrous, but Jeb turned in a really strong performance,” Jessica Taylor, the campaign editor for The Hill, said in a tweet. Evidently, even Laura Ingraham couldn’t think of anything particularly nasty to say. She contented herself with a tweet about Bush’s ties to the plutocracy: “Jeb Handlers will spin #CPAC2015 appearance as ‘brave,’ and ‘held firm,’ ‘didn’t back down,’ to reassure #DonorClass that he’s the one.”
Whether Bush is the one remains to be seen, of course. A recent series of polls had showed him trailing in Iowa and other states, but in entering the conservative den and emerging unscathed, he did what he needed to do.
