Fox News commentator and Democratic pollster Doug Schoen said Thursday that he sees only one man on the political field of play who can block former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s nomination as the GOP presidential candidate: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Speaking immediately after the
Fox News-Google debate, Schoen told Newsmax that Romney is “seemingly unstoppable unless Jeb Bush throws his hat in the ring.”
He added: “Republicans have had three or four front-runners: Romney, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry. Now [the GOP is] moving back to Romney, perhaps inexorably, and the only man in America who can beat
Mitt Romney and galvanize the Republican Party is Jeb Bush.”
Bush has declined repeatedly to toss his hat in the ring. But Schoen, who said he has no inside knowledge of the Florida governor’s political plans, said the economic crisis gripping the nation has grown so severe that Bush may be persuaded that the nation desperately needs his leadership.
“Let’s stop talking politics,” Schoen said after the Dow suffered its worst two-day loss since the meltdown of November 2008. “Let’s talk real world, real life. We’re in a crisis.”
In July, Jeb Bush told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he doesn’t anticipate a 2012 run. “You never say never,” Bush said, adding mirthfully: “I never rule out being on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ either."
Schoen said Bush would win broad support from virtually all quarters of the Republican Party, and praised his ability to rally the nation.
“This is unsustainable, whether you’re on the left, the right, or the center,” Schoen said of the nation’s deepening economic woes. “The only man with a vision of inclusiveness, and policies to balance the budget and get America moving again in a rational and realistic way is the former governor of Florida.
“Now, he may decide not to run,” Schoen said. “But given the nature of the crisis, and of the [GOP] field, I believe that if he jumped in, he would be the instant and immediate front-runner.”
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