Now that Chris Christie is generally considered to be toast for the nomination he never would have had anyhow, Jeb Bush is being whispered about as the Republicans' "great white hope."
Barbara Bush does not want Jeb Bush to run for president. She is very smart. If Jeb gets into the race, all the incoherent incompetence of "W" and Poppy will be revisited on the national consciousness with Katrina-like gale force, destroying the fortress the Bushes have tried to erect around themselves.
Bar knows that the main reason "W" is no longer vilified is that he is out-of-sight and thus out-of-mind. The Tea Party hates him because he ran up the national debt, and did part D of Medicare. A large fraction of the country despises him for not reacting at all to threats that led to 9/11, for abandoning the Afghan war when we might have finished it off, lying us instead into the Iraq War (costing thousands of lives, limbs and over $1 trillion), for Katrina, for the economic collapse that wiped out trillions of dollars of boomer and X-er wealth, and left millennials without gainful employment. And, that was only the big stuff that we read about.
Poppy Bush was no bargain either. Indeed, one of the more popular buttons in "W" era was, "I didn't vote for his father, either." But, if Jeb decided to run, the only salient and undeniable fact that would need to be resurfaced was Poppy's own recession.
Just imagine a Clinton running against anyone with a Bush surname talking about the economic records and jobs!
Bar's maternal instinct is right. Jeb would first have to run against his own nuclear family on immigration to get the nomination, and then against his own extended family in the general. Neither would work anyhow. The American people have wised up to the Bushes.
Indeed, I make this bold prediction: Barbara Bush will endorse Hillary Clinton fairly early in the cycle. She does not have much love for the Palin wing of the party anyhow, and her endorsement will absolutely put the kibosh on any thought Jeb might have of running.
Maternal instincts did not evolve for nothing. When it comes to protecting family, mothers get it right.