- Margaret Thatcher famously said that her greatest success as a politician was the rise of Tony Blair to lead a party he called New Labour: “We forced our opponents to change their minds.” As yet, Barack Obama can make no similar boast. Just the opposite: He radicalized his Republican opponents, and empowered most those who agreed with him least. With the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, Obama can finally glimpse Thatcher-style success. Here, at last, is an opponent in his own image.
What can the son and brother of a president, grandson of a senator, and great grandson of the founder of the Walker Cup have in common with the son of a failed Kenyan politician? Look beyond the biography to the psychology.
When I see one of George W. Bush's speechwriters telling Obama supporters Jeb Bush isn't different from Obama in the ways that really matter (because who cares about their policies anyway?), it prompts questions about the motivations and potential biases of the author.
The article is largely about immigration, Jeb Bush wrote a pretty comprehensive book on the topic. The article does touch on similarities between Obama and Bush and they tend to be around redefining ones self. Also, regarding the title of the article, it's not often that the author of a piece gets the privilege of titling it. However, this may not be true here, I have no idea. But either way, I didn't get the feeling that he was trying to say Jeb Bush is just like Obama regarding policy, but rather that they have some personal parallels. This seems impossible given their backgrounds, but perhaps it's not so crazy after all. I watched that first Bush interview and I have to say that I was impressed by him. I think he could prove a serious contender for the GOP.Both Jeb Bush and Barack Obama are men who have openly and publicly struggled with their ambivalence about their family inheritance. Both responded by leaving the place of their youth to create new identities for themselves: Barack Obama, as an organizer in the poor African-American neighborhoods of Chicago; Jeb Bush in Mexico, Venezuela, and at last in Cuban-influenced Miami. Both are men who have talked a great deal about the feeling of being “between two worlds”: Obama, in his famous autobiography; Bush, in his speeches. Both chose wives who would more deeply connect them to their new chosen identity. Both derived from their new identity a sharp critique of their nation as it is. Both have built their campaign for president upon a deep commitment to fundamental transformation of their nation into what they believe it should be.