Jeb Bush and I shook hands as he came through an entrance of the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Mediciine (VCOM) in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He was dressed casually in a long-sleeve white shirt and slacks. I remarked that he was taller than most people probably realized. He responded, “Yeah, taller, everybody says that.” For some reason, that comment elicited a fair amount of forced laughter from those nearby. Up close he’s a telegenic candidate, friendly looking and bespectacled. He’s lost some weight. Jeb is relatively soft-spoken and delivers his speech in a comfortable, one could almost say, folksy manner. By all physical measures, he looks to be a strong candidate. I’ve written long ago that I think he’s the one to beat for the Republican nomination.
Bush was hustled by staff into the auditorium venue, made a short speech, answered questions from a panel and a few from the audience. He and his staff then hurried to the next stop.
Here are the highlights of the late afternoon session. After suggesting a 10% reduction in federal employees, he bragged about his slashing of 11% of state jobs as governor of Florida. He also thought a great solution to any social security shortfalls would be increasing the retirement age. He wants balanced budget legislation, a virtual guarantee of chaos in times of economic crisis…like, uh, under the last Bush in the oval office.
Bush said his candidacy was mainly about “high and sustained economic growth and a secure world.” His expanded comments on the latter should be of great concern to an objective electorate. In the wake of a great job by Obama, Kerry and company to get Iran to sign off on an acceptable nuclear agreement, Bush called for “less talk and more action” in dealing with Iran. Action?
He didn’t clarify what he meant by that observation, but it’s clear that trigger pulls and maybe a few bunker-busters would be involved. He doubled down on his apparent ‘Dodge City’ foreign policy by calling for the strongest military in the world and opining that it’s “hard to imagine embracing Iran.” Brings to mind McCain’s “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.” in year 2007 of the 2008 presidential campaign. Bush added that the president’s policy is doomed to fail and not strategic at all.
If you’re still not convinced of the meaning of the bellicose Bush Iran statements; let’s throw in his suggestion that we re-engage in Iraq. Takeaway: This guy will run us headlong into the next World War. And you wonder why a letter writer to Progressive Magazine cited a Gallup Poll of 2013 of 65 countries that considered the U.S. the greatest threat to world peace. Elect Jeb Bush and that number will double.
In response to a panelist’ education query, Bush enthusiastically told the audience that education shouldn’t be a federal program. Every state should be challenged to offer more school choice and vouchers. This parallels His “Foundation for Excellence in Education”…your kid’s education must be a profit-making enterprise, meaning taxpayer money directly to profiteers for private schools, charter schools and testing.
Condi Rice is running the foundation in Jeb’s absence. As a fellow true believer, she’s big on school choice and vouchers as well and thinks goofy Common Core with its unattainable goals, is anything but. Among the financial enablers of right-wing efforts to sell off education to the highest bidder is the possessor of untold multiple billions and multiple faces, Bill Gates. He gives millions in contributions to the foundation.
Bush proceeded to tell the audience what a stellar education-governor he was and how he started the state’s first charter school. He’s mastered the art of bragging on himself while appearing to be humble. The perfect politician. He neglected to share the Politico report that a Bush initiative to grade all public schools on an A-F scale was a failure of logistics and was easy to manipulate, either through transparent changes or behind closed doors. Even Republicans grumble that teachers have no way of knowing what criteria to apply from year to year.
Politico also reiterates a statement made by Bush at the 2012 Republican National Convention. He stated that public schools are like commodities, milk being an example, and should be available in competing brands where the FREE MARKET could work its magic.
Bush continued bragging about the great advances that Florida schools have made based on his initiatives. Problem is, there is likely as much manipulation of those numbers as there is with the A-F scale. Yes, there are measurements of some admittedly substantial gains, particularly in the black and Hispanic minority communities.
However, these “gains” can easily be called into political question when you look at the membership and logistics of the alphabet soup entities that do the measuring; Policy is set by the supposedly “independent, bipartisan” National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB).
Frankly, NAGB is a joke. Its appointed board is made up of either members of incredibly obvious self-interests, or conscientious innocents who don’t know that they’re being duped. There are 23 members from various walks of education life. Learn about them, here. The NAGB Chairman is a Director of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank as well as the Chicago Community Trust with $2 billion in swag to be distributed to assorted “deserving” city entities. If you’re sitting on that kind of dough, it’s all about politics.
Another member left his last job under a cloud of incompetence and conflicts of interest. Yet another decision-maker is a right-wing Florida Republican who was one of the key speakers at a Bush Foundation Summit. Another speaker was John Podesta, A supposed Democrat and head of one of the most powerful lobbying firms in the nation’s capitol. He owns it, a Republican runs it. Though not a NAGB member, he saw fit to join the list of guest speakers united in their love of tax-credits, vouchers and charter schools in the education marketplace.
Another board member risks a possible conflict of interest that tracks directly to one of the most powerful (and wealthy) testing corporations in the nation, owned by a firm in Great Britain. Yet another distinguished member, former Wyoming Republican Governor James Geringer, pushed mightily and successfully for legalizing charter schools in his state. It doesn’t stop there. At this point, the game is rigged.
One final point about the candidate’s integrity. The day before his Upstate appearance, Bush blasted Washington lobbyists. The International Business Times, writes that the event was organized by the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Nobody lobbies harder than state chambers and their national U.S. Chamber mentor. He also receives substantial donations from the aforementioned according to IBT.
The day after his VCOM appearance, Bush went on the imperative candidate/preacher visit to a pregnancy center. He was escorted by a couple of Baptist pastors. Must have been a good sell job. One exclaimed, “We didn’t just hear his words, we heard his heart.” A couple of decades ago, Bush converted to Catholicism, much to the despair of the Evangelicals.
So, that’s pretty much the basic George Bush. Some fun reading can be found under the name Columbia Garnica de Gallo (Bush). She’s the candidate’s wife who not only seems to intensely dislike politics, but, perhaps, her husband as well.
Worth looking up.
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