Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said that President Obama was able to win re-election, in part, by making the election between “them and us” and saying Republicans don’t care about a sizable chunk of the American population.
“He’s a very good campaigner and his campaign was well-organized and they got their vote out,” Mr. Bush said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “He won by waging a very effective campaign, and he won by, in some ways, dividing the country, and so Republicans, I think, need to learn from this and not just be reacting to what we think is wrong about the president’s polices. We need to be advocating positive positive policies as well. And I think there’s a growing awareness that that’s the case.”
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Mr. Bush, a potential contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, said a basic tenet of Mr. Obama’s campaign was that successful people were not paying their fair share, even though “incredibly high” taxes are in place for high-income Americans.
“I think he ran a campaign of ‘them and us,’ and it was quite effective that, somehow, Republicans don’t care about the large number of people,” Mr. Bush said. “It’s not true, but in order to win, I think Republicans need to offer a compelling alternative and have proposals on health care, have proposals on tax reform, on entitlement reform. The good news is that that is emerging.”
