Lately, Jeb Bush has talked about reaching out to minorities and women. In 1994, he said hed do probably nothing to help African-Americans and announced that women on welfare should get husbands.
  • Lately, Jeb Bush has talked about reaching out to minorities and women. In 1994, he said he'd do "probably nothing" to help African Americans and announced that women on welfare should get husbands.
Okay, so Jeb Bush is the compassionate conservative. Or, I mean, he's looking to transform America into a kinder, gentler nation. Or, no, wait. Jeb Bush says the middle class has a "right to rise." But surely we should take Jeb Bush at his word, right? Unlike his father and his brother, he surely means everything he says? Even... say, even things he said 20 years ago when he was first running for governor of Florida?

Women on welfare, Bush said, “should be able to get their life together and find a husband” or other ways to support themselves. Gays and lesbians, he said, do not deserve special legal protections because “we have enough special categories, enough victims, without creating even more.” Asked what he would do for African-Americans, he famously said, “probably nothing,” explaining that he wants “equality of opportunity” for all people.

I guess the question is, which Jeb Bush should we believe? The tough-talking gubernatorial candidate, or the presidential candidate who—exactly in the mold of his father's and brother's presidential campaigns—says he's going to be a different, nicer kind of conservative? Which of those two option seems likelier to you?