Jeb Bush May Run for President, George W. Bush Says

Will Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, try to become the third member of his immediate family to run for president? His brother calls it “a tossup.”

In an interview with CBS broadcast Sunday on “Face the Nation,” former President George W. Bush said his brother was “wrestling with the decision” about whether to undertake a presidential campaign in 2016. The former president said he put the chances of his brother doing so at “50-50.”

“I know this about Jeb,” Mr. Bush said. “He is not afraid to succeed. In other words, I think he knows he could do the job. And nor is he afraid to fail.”

People close to Jeb Bush have said that he is seriously considering whether to run in 2016, and that most members of his extended family have been rallying behind the idea in recent weeks, though the family matriarch, Barbara Bush, their mother, is said to remain against another presidential run by a family member.

In the interview, his brother said winning the White House would be worth any negative impact on Jeb Bush’s family.

“One of the lessons you learn from George H. W. Bush is that you can go into politics and still be a good father,” Mr. Bush said. “In other words, the priorities of your life don’t have to be compromised.”

Mr. Bush appeared on the CBS morning program to promote his new book, “41,” about his father. In the interview, Mr. Bush said he thought his father would have won a second term in office if Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire, had not run as a third-party candidate.

“I mean, it’s just all conjecture, of course,” Mr. Bush said. “But I think he would have won, because I think ultimately there would have been a, you know, a clear choice between, you know, a guy who had a very good first term and an untested governor.”  More, NYTimes