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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  3580 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is Jeb Bush a Republican Obama? - The Atlantic

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.

    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.

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.