Bush campaigning to be disrupter-in-chief

CEDAR RAPIDS - Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two former presidents, wants to go to Washington to 'disrupt the old order.”

That's going to require a new style of leadership, the type he practiced when he 'turned the who system upside down” as governor of Florida, Bush told about 100 people at a luncheon at the Cedar Rapids Country Club Tuesday.

In just his sixth campaign trip to Iowa - his first to Cedar Rapids since March 7, Bush laid out of a vision of leadership that was at odds with President Barack Obama and set him apart from Donald Trump, who, according to a PPP poll released Tuesday, continues to be the front-runner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

Bush called for more humility and less 'grandiose language,” less trash talking and more support for people struggling to rise.

'I don't wake up angry and I'm not a grievance candidate or the loudest voice in the room - or on the debate floor,” Bush said.

'I'm not the loudest voice. I'm not the most theatrical. I wouldn't even try to do some of the things some of the candidates are doing. It's not in my DNA, I guess,” Bush said to clapping and laughter.

Instead, Bush countered criticism of him by telling the Linn County Eagles - an Iowa political action committee that supports local candidate, he has the passion and energy to be president.

'I actually have high energy,” said Bush, who also made an appearance at a fundraiser for Rep. Ken Rizer, R-Cedar Rapids, later in the day at Veterans Memorial Building.

Bush, whose has made just a quarter of the number of visits former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has made in the past two years, promised to campaign in the first-in-the-nation state frequently.

'I've been told it's kind of an important state in the process,” he joked, adding that he will 'campaign with heart … campaign to win. We're going to be here for the long haul.”

If he wins the nomination and the presidential race, Bush promised to be a new style of Washington leader.

'The kind of leader who puts himself back a little bit and focuses on the power of ideas and tries to bring people together toward those ideas rather than campaigning, kind of lecturing, how bad things are and how bad you are,” he said.

And he wants to be the leader who will 'disrupt the old order” in a city that 'desperately needs a housecleaning.”

He didn't spare Republicans from criticism, saying 'our party has become too focused on the status quo.”

He called for a balanced-budget amendment, prohibiting members of congress from lobbying for six years after leaving office 'rather than monetizing their service.”

He also called for regulatory reform. Bush said that under Obama, 'government has run amok” with the president using executive powers rather than the 'traditional tools of democracy … to carry out his progressive left agenda” that is stifling farmers, cost-effective power generation and other economic activity.

'I pledge to you that I will clean house. No more academics and political hacks from the left running our regulatory agencies,” he said.

His vision is a government 'that is smaller, more nimble, a government that is more responsive to broader universe of people rather than the special interests.”

He also called for simplifying the tax code and lowering corporate taxes to stimulate investment and job creation, changing the entitlement system 'to protect it for those who have it and ensure that it exists in a form that makes it possible for us not to be overwhelmed by debt that will make it hard for the next generation to rise.”

Bush called for conservatives to demonstrate their passion for people who are struggling - the families of the victims of heroin, children who are stuck in failing schools, military families who worry their loved ones don't have the right equipment or training because of budget sequestration, people who are one or two paychecks away from financial ruin.

'For our country to succeed, everybody has to have a chance to succeed, not just those who have already made it,” Bush said. 'That's what we need now in Washington. We need someone on the side of the people that are struggling. I assume that everyone wants to rise up. I assume there's no 47 percent.

'We need, as conservatives, to be on side of people that want to rise up,” Bush concluded.

For Bush to rise up, he needs more conservatives to be on his side. PPP found that even with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker out of the race Bush has fallen from fourth place at 11 percent in August to sixth place.

Trump is on top in Iowa with 24 percent to 17 percent for Ben Carson and 13 percent for Carly Fiorina. Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are at 8 percent, Bush and Mike Huckabee are tied at 6 percent, and Bobby Jindal and Rand Paul are at 4 percent. Rounding out the field are John Kasich at 2 percent, Chris Christie and Rick Santorum at 1 percent, and Lindsey Graham, Jim Gilmore, and George Pataki all at less than 1 percent.

Perhaps most concerning for Bush, according to PPP, is that voters continue to just not even like him - he has a 38 percent favorability rating with 40 percent of voters seeing him negatively. His big struggle is with those who identify as 'very conservative.” His favorability rating with them is 29 percent favorable and 45 percent unfavorable. Just 2 percent support him for the nomination, which puts him in 10th place with that group.