PUSH FOR JEB? – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  There are many stories starting to float around the internet about a possible Jeb Bush presidential candidacy in 2016.  Apparently, major donors are focusing their attention on Jeb.  From WaPo:

LAS VEGAS — Many of the Republican Party’s most powerful insiders and financiers have begun a behind-the-scenes campaign to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the 2016 presidential race, courting him and his intimates and starting talks on fundraising strategy.

Concerned that the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal has damaged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s political standing and alarmed by the steady rise of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), prominent donors, conservative leaders and longtime operatives say they consider Bush the GOP’s brightest hope to win back the White House.

Bush’s advisers insist that he is not actively exploring a candidacy and will not make a decision until at least the end of this year. But over the past few weeks, Bush has traveled the country delivering policy speeches, campaigning for Republicans ahead of the fall midterm elections, honing messages on income inequality and foreign policy, and cultivating ties with wealthy benefactors — all signals that he is considering a run.

Many if not most of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s major donors are reaching out to Bush and his confidants with phone calls, e-mails and invitations to meet, according to interviews with 30 senior Republicans. One bundler estimated that the “vast majority” of Romney’s top 100 donors would back Bush in a competitive nomination fight.

“He’s the most desired candidate out there,” said another bundler, Brian Ballard, who sat on the national finance committees for Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008. “Everybody that I know is excited about it.”

COMMENT:  I think Bush would probably make a fine president.  But I don't know if he'd make a fine candidate.  I'd have to hear him speak more, and answer questions.  He is not known as a dynamic speaker, but he has a sense of decency that always comes through.  In addition, he was a very successful governor of Florida.  His wife is Hispanic.  In the practical world of politics, that will help. 

But he'll have to reach beyond the Republican establishment, which isn't all that popular with much of the party these days.  Articles that emphasis the support he has from major donors can turn off much of the scrappy GOP base. 

I'd like to see him in the race.  He adds seriousness.

March 30,  2014