Salon.com > Barbara Bush

The week in 10 pics

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

From Bangladesh to the banks of the Mississippi, a look at the images that defined the week

Barbara Bush is right

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:51:00 +0000

We heard it repeatedly during the 2012 campaign and its sad aftermath for the GOP: The party’s silver lining was its “deep bench” of 2016 contenders. Paul Ryan and Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker -- they were younger than Mitt Romney; they brought racial and ethnic diversity; Christie would bring a little ideological diversity, too, coming from the almost extinct wing of Northeastern Republicans. 2016 promised to be a bracing, exciting battle for the new soul of the party.

So I’ve found it a sad commentary on GOP rebuilding that there’s been so much talk this week about the likelihood and desirability of a Jeb Bush candidacy. And apparently one influential Republican, his mother, Barbara, agrees with me.

Barbara Bush on Jeb: “We’ve had enough Bushes”

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:23:00 +0000

Former First Lady Barbara Bush says that though she thinks Jeb Bush is a strong candidate for the presidency in 2016, she doesn't want him to run. "We've had enough Bushes," she said on "The Today Show."

"He's by far the best qualified man, but no," she continued. "I really don't. I think it's a great country, there are a lot of great families, and it's not just four families or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified, and we've had enough Bushes."

Bush added that she doesn't think Jeb, the former governor of Florida, will run: "He's the most qualified, but I don't think he'll run."

My “hypocrisy” about the Bush daughters

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Mediaite has a nice gotcha item about my post on Breitbart.com Matthew Boyle’s outing the vacation spot of Malia and Sasha Obama this week. Twelve years ago, apparently, I wrote a column about why Jenna and Barbara Bush’s brushes with police over underage drinking – they were 19 – were fair game for the media.

Let me admit up front: I wouldn’t write that column today. There’s too much silly schadenfreude in it. Especially since the Bush daughters both grew up to be apparently fine young women, I was wrong to suggest there might be larger issues in their genuinely youthful indiscretions. It was newsworthy -- in Austin, Jenna was breaking a law her father signed as governor -- but as a columnist, I don't write about everything that's news. If I did write about it again, I hope I'd take a different tone 12 years later.