Jeb Bush

About

Jeb Bush, born February 11th, 1953 (age 62), is an American conservative politician who previously served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is the younger brother of former United States President George W. Bush.

Political Career

In 1989, Bush served as the campaign manager for Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In 1994, Bush ran for governor of Florida and was defeated by incumbent Democract Lawton Chiles. In 1998, Bush defeated Lietenant Governor Buddy MacKay to become Governor of Florida, where he held the position till 2007.

Online History

2016 Presidential Election

On June 14th, 2015, the @JebBush^[2] Twitter feed posted a teaser logo for his upcoming presidential campaign, featuring the name "Jeb" followed by an exclamation point (shown below). In the first 48 hours, the tweet gained over 1,100 favorites and 980 retweets.

That day, other Twitter users began mocking the logo with photoshopped parodies (shown below). On June 15th, The Daily What published a compilation of notable photoshopped examples.

Also on June 15th, Bush officially announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination in the 2016 United States Presidential election.

After a lengthy decline from original popular favorite to bottom of the polls, Jeb dropped out of the election February 21st, 2016.

Guaca Bowle

On August 4th, 2015, Jeb Bush unveiled a new campaign store on his web site, where supporters could purchase merchandise, most of which was branded with the campaign's logo. One item which remained unbranded was a molcajete, or Mexican guacamole bowl, which was labeled "Guaca Bowle" and cost $75 from the campaign.^[5] Accompanying the molcajete was this promotional text:

Jeb and Columba love whipping up guacamole on Sunday Funday. Now, you can get in on the act with this “Guaca Bowle.” Jeb’s secret guacamole recipe not included…yet.

The molcajete quickly became a source of ridicule for the Bush campaign, especially considering that similar models were available on Amazon for far cheaper. In addition, since the unveiling of the molcajete happened in near proximity to the release of the Pea Guacamole Recipe, many of the satirical tweets combined the two events.^[6]

The launching of the campaign store and the unveiling of the Guaca Bowle became the source material for a satirical web store called Jeb!SwagStore and was covered in a variety of political publications, including Talking Points Memo,^[7] the Guardian,^[8] and the Week,^[9] and was featured on an episode of Late Night With Stephen Colbert on September 9th, 2015.

Green Screen Photoshop

On October 8th, 2015, Jeb Bush tweeted a photograph^[10] of himself posing in front of a green screen while being trained on giving a weather forecast at the local TV station WHO-HD in Des Moines, Iowa.

That same day, Redditor Supreme-Leader-Snoke submitted the photograph to /r/photoshopbattles^[11], spawning a series of photoshopped parodies featuring the Republican presidential candidate in various comedic situations. Within the first 72 hours, the thread garnered more than 940 comments and 72 image submissions.

Reputation

Position on Net Neutrality

While taking questions from voters at the Cedar Rapids Pizza Ranch in Iowa, Bush referred to net neutrality regulations imposed by the Communications Act of 1934 as "one of the craziest ideas I've ever heard."^[4]

Position on Same-Sex Marriage

On May 17th, 2015, Bush revealed in an interview on The Brody File that he did not believe in constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

"If we want to create a right-to-rise society, where people, particularly children born in poverty, if we want to have them have a chance we should be -- a core American value. We have to restore committed, loving family life with a mom and a dad loving their children with their heart and soul."

Personal Life

Jeb Bush was born on February 11th, 1953 in Midland, Texas. In 1974, he married Columba Garnica de Gallo, with whom he has three children. He is the younger brother of former United States President George W. Bush.

Search Interest

External References