Name: Herman: Could W., no fan of Trump, endorse Biden?
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Herman: Could W., no fan of Trump, endorse Biden?

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&nbsp;I have some news today about something that might have crossed your mind in recent days, perhaps especially because of a recent video from a man we don’t hear from all that much anymore.The question is simple: To add to the unparalleled oddness of our times, is it possible that an ex-president of one party could endorse a presidential candidate of the other party?Let’s poke around and see if it is at all possible that ex-President George W. Bush, clearly no fan of President Donald J. Trump, might cross party lines and back presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.I think I know the answer. Stick around.First, some background. Bush and Trump couldn’t be more different, both personally and in their view of how the presidency should be conducted. I recently mentioned to a longtime Bush adviser that I’m guessing Bush is not impressed with Trump’s conduct of the presidency.Understatement, I was told. And I can believe it because, whatever you think of Bush (and there is much to second-guess), it’s difficult to find fault in his respect for the high office he (and his dad) held.Bush has let it be known that he didn’t vote for Trump in 2016. He obviously didn’t endorse Trump, which, in itself, was a silence that was a big-time intraparty political slap in the face.Despite his dissatisfaction with and distaste for Trump, Bush has followed the unofficial Conduct Code of the Ex-Presidency by remaining publicly silent in criticism. (There is, of course, a campaign-season exemption allowing an ex-president of one party to campaign against the presidential nominee of the other party, even if said nominee is an incumbent, On Saturday, we saw Barack Obama use that exemption in criticizing Trump.)For Bush, his silence on Trump changed a bit in his recently released a two-minute, 48-second video with his voice over photos and videos of Americans enduring the pandemic.To me and others, it was Bush at his best, voicing the kind of message of unity and empathy Trump seems to view as unmanly weakness, which is too bad because unity and empathy are just what we need right about now.Instead, as per usual, Trump has pulled out the blamethrower and said everything bad is someone else’s fault: China, Democrats, his predecessors, anyone who says anything bad about him."Finally," Bush says at the end of the video, "let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We’re human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together. And we are determined to rise. God bless you all."Everything in Trump’s head is partisan combat, sometimes intramurally so. Here’s his tweeted reaction, a reference to his impeachment, to the unifying message on the Bush video and the ex-president who offered it: "He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!"I’ll give this president credit for one thing: consistency, as in consistently making everything about himself, even in his negative reaction to an ex-president’s positive message.So could it happen? Could Bush endorse Biden?"I very much doubt it," says Mark Updegrove, LBJ Foundation president and CEO and author of the 2017 book "The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.""He’s obviously not a fan," Updegrove said of George W’s feelings about Trump. "He told me in mid-2016 that Trump ‘really doesn’t understand the job of president’ and later that he voted for ‘none of the above.’ But endorsing Biden would be a bridge too far," Updegrove said, adding, "He won’t endorse Trump, which speaks volumes."Dan Bartlett, who served in the Bush White House as counselor to the president and now is a Walmart executive veep, told me he hasn’t "heard of anything about (Bush) even contemplating an endorsement (and) I would be surprised if he jumped in on either side."And I got this three-point analysis from Mark McKinnon, a former Bush adviser who’s now ringmaster of Showtime’s "The Circus," a political reality (surreality?) show."Highly unlikely," he said of Bush endorsing Biden. "One, with rare exception — the recent video — he prefers to stay off the radar screen. He feels like he had his time in the spotlight, and he's been ushered off stage and he should stay there. And he likes it there. He's not a fan of grand self-reflecting public gestures."Two, whatever issues he may have with President Trump he keeps to himself, and he is very much a party man. Endorsing Biden would not only hurt Trump, but would hurt Republicans up and down the ballot."Three, family first. Always. Endorsing Biden in 2020 would likely hurt George P. in whatever he may be running for in 2022."Ah yes. George P., as in, for the Bush family, problem (at least politically).George P. Bush, son of Jeb, nephew of W. and grandson of the late George H.W. and Barbara, is our politically upwardly mobile state land commissioner. And, despite Trump’s nasty references to Jeb Bush ("low energy") during the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, George P. is fully on board with Trump.This is how Trump introduced George P. at an April 2019 event in Crosby, Texas: "This is the only Bush that likes me. This is the only one. Come here, I want to meet you. He’s a friend of my son. And he’s a great guy. Truly this is the Bush that got it right."After there was a handshake and this from Trump: "Good guy. Good guy. He’s going far. He’s going places."George P.’s grandmother did not think Trump was a good guy. USA Today’s Susan Page, in her book "The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of a Dynasty," reported on Barbara Bush’s disdain for Trump.Trump’s response: "I have heard that she was nasty to me. But she should be. Look what I did to her sons," he told the Washington Times.In June 2016, after Trump had clinched the GOP presidential nomination, George P. told my colleague Jonathan Tilove, "I, along with others, are not in a position to endorse (Trump) at this time because of concerns about his rhetoric and his inability to create a campaign that brings people together."Two months later, in endorsing Trump. he told Texas GOP county chairs, "You know for Team Bush it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but you know what," he said, "you get back up and you help the man that won and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton."We now know George P. had it right the first time. Our nation now has concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and his inability to bring a nation together.But George P. became a full Trumper, navigating the tricky line between family and politics. When his uncle’s video was released, George P. tweeted, "Inspiring message from my Uncle this morning. He always seems to find the right words during time of crisis."Which, to many, is the polar opposite of the words our current president finds at any time.But George P., as reported by the Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek, trumpeted his Trump credentials in a May 14 Texas GOP tele-town hall by parroting Trump bombast: "Joe Biden is going to come to Texas and say he’s a reasonable Democrat. And the reality is the Democrats are offering nothing short of socialism."So could Uncle George W. publicly endorse a candidate nephew George P. sees as a socialist?Not gonna happen, as Dana Carvey would say George H.W. would say.I have this on very good authority: "43 did not endorse in 2016 and won’t endorse in 2020." It’s good enough authority that I think we can take it as the final word on this. The ex-president’s silence, again will tell us what he thinks of Trump.I tried to get the usual no comment from Bush’s staff but did not get a response. We can assume it would have been the same as it was last year when I asked Bush’s office if there’d be response to Trump’s branding of George P. as "the only Bush that likes me.""Nope," said spokesman Freddy Ford last year, "but thanks for asking."I covered Bush for a long time, here in Austin as our governor and at the White House as our president. I have respect for him, particularly for his respect for the high offices he held.And my respect for him would magnify if he’d come out and say publicly what we know him to be saying privately about the abomination that is the Trump presidency.I get it, I guess, about the precarious political and family pinch in which W. finds himself. Crossing party lines for a presidential endorsement would violate political and ex-presidential norms.But we live in decidedly abnormal times with a decidedly abnormal president who, on a daily basis, violates the presidential norms.

&nbsp;I have some news today about something that might have crossed your mind in recent days, perhaps especially because of a recent video from a man we don’t hear from all that much anymore.The question is simple: To add to the unparalleled oddness of our times, is it possible that an ex-president of one party could endorse a presidential candidate of the other party?Let’s poke around and see if it is at all possible that ex-President George W. Bush, clearly no fan of President Donald J. Trump, might cross party lines and back presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.I think I know the...

Herman: Could W., no fan of Trump, endorse Biden?

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