JEB BUSH

Will Jeb Bush Run? George W. Bush Says It’s a ‘Toss-Up’

ByLaura Meckler

President George W. Bush is giving even odds that his brother Jeb Bush, right, will run for president in 2016.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

Former President George W. Bush said he thinks there’s a “50-50” chance that his brother, Jeb, will run for president in 2016—and that he hopes he does.

“I know that he’s wrestling with the decision,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “He and I are very close. On the other hand, he’s not here knocking on my door, you know, agonizing about the decision… I’d give it a toss-up.”

Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, has said he will make a decision by the end of the year.

“You know, it’s a lot of speculation about him,” the former president said. “I occasionally fuel the speculation by saying that I hope he runs.”

Asked about their mother’s comment that there have been “enough Bushes,” he replied, “Sometimes her prognostications haven’t been very accurate.”

George W. Bush, who rarely gives interviews, was promoting his new book about their father, former President George H.W. Bush, “41: A Portrait of My Father.”

He said he would be happy to campaign—or not campaign—for his brother, if he decides to make a run.

“I’ll do whatever he wants.  I will be one of his strongest backers.  If he wants me out there publicly, I’ll be out there publicly.  If he wants me behind the scenes, I’ll be behind the scenes,” he said. “I’m all in for him. He’d be a great president. And the country could use an optimistic view like his.”

His wife, Laura Bush, joined for part of the interview and said she, too, would be happy to return to the campaign trail. “Sure. If he wanted me to, I’d be happy to campaign for him.”

In his new book, Mr. Bush writes that his father seriously considered not running for reelection in 1992 because of his son Neil’s legal troubles with a failed savings and loan. He ran for reelection but lost to Democrat Bill Clinton.

He added that he thinks his father would have won had independent billionaire Ross Perot not run. But he said his father’s White House didn’t do enough after a triumphant victory in the first Gulf War to let voters know that “domestic politics really mattered for George Bush as much as international politics.”

“He had a lot of capital to spend, and…in retrospect, it wasn’t spent wisely,” he said.

He added that the defeat “really, really affected me” and said that while he was president, his chief concern was how difficult situations would affect his daughters.

“When they criticized me, the sting wasn’t nearly as difficult… Being his son during his presidency created kind of a layer of asbestos,” he said. “The only thing I was concerned about was that how would my girls react when they were put in the same position I had been in.”