Jeb Bush sets sail for 2016 presidential campaign

In the great pre-Presidential-campaign of 2015, when everyone and no-one is running to become the next US President, Jeb Bush is a Republican front-runner.

Although no-one can accurately predict whether he can translate his pre-campaign success into actual front-runner status, he’s raising the money and delivering the messages necessary to ensure he’s in the right place when the herds of pollsters and opinion surveyors read the entrails and decide to press go.

In Chicago, he gave a speech on foreign policy. An America out of love with the campaigns his brother began in Afghanistan and Iraq needed to hear what he might do differently. But there’s a Scylla and Charibdes (cf. Sting 1983) for Bush the younger to navigate.

An America disillusioned by the disengagement of the Obama presidency also needed to hear what Jeb might do differently.

Here’s the route he took, in three quotes:

1) The great irony of the Obama presidency is this: Someone who came to office promising greater engagement with the world has left America less influential in the world.

Then, Jeb jibbed left.

2) I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I am my own man – and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences.

And hoisted the mainsail.

3) Because I believe fundamentally that weakness invites war.. and strength encourages peace.

It was a bold excursion, over which there will no doubt be fathoms of column inches dedicated in the next days. But Team Bush will have to wait more than 18 months to know whether it chose the right course.

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