Video: We've had enough Bushes as president, says ... Barbara Bush

How often does a potentially election-affecting soundbite drop three years out from the next presidential race? Good lord. This is a Gillooly-level kneecapping. I’m sitting here trying to come up with some sly strategic angle she might be playing to help Jeb by saying this, but I’ve got nothing. His biggest problem in 2016 is convincing people that he’s not Dubya and that “Bush fatigue” shouldn’t apply, and now here’s mom preempting him by saying yep, it should. Even worse is that she said it on camera rather than in a print interview. I think pols are naturally reluctant to attack dynastic politics, partly because they don’t want to foreclose dynastic opportunities for their own families and partly because it can sound like whining if not expressed well. (“No fair! The Bushes are hogging the ball!”) Now Jeb’s rivals don’t have to worry about that. Just cut the clip of mother Bush here and stick it in an ad. And she does this on the very day that George’s presidential library is opening, when Jeb is getting all sorts of free media speculation about running? (Dubya himself is urging Jeb to run, which maybe helps or maybe hurts.) My mind is blown. Any other Bushes want to step up and help crush his dreams? Maybe Neil Bush has some warm reminiscence about Jeb saying guns should be banned or something?

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Speaking of dynastic politics, note Barbara’s repeated references to other “families” deserving a shot at the presidency. Not individuals. “Families.”

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