Bush on Iowa Press: Republican rivals getting attention ‘the wrong way’

CEDAR RAPIDS - American voters may be angry, frustrated and believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, but former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush doesn't believe he has to be angry to connect with them.

'You never win by saying end is near,” said Bush, who talks about campaigning with joy in his heart.

'Name a candidate in national office that won saying ‘The world is coming to an end, vote for me,'” Bush said Wednesday during taping of Iowa Press, which will be broadcast this weekend on Iowa Public Television. 'At the end of the day you've really got to offer a compelling alternative to the path we're on.”

Bush, 62, believes he is offering that alternative to other 2016 GOP presidential nomination hopefuls who 'are trying to get attention the wrong way.”

The wrong way is Donald Trump calling for Muslims to be tracked and mosques to be surveilled and when retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson compares refugees to 'rabid dogs.”

'I don't think that we should be tracking people unless there is well-founded evidence that people are preparing to attack us,” he said. 'I don't think that refugees are dogs. That's ridiculous.”

Asked if Trump should apologize, Bush said that won't happen because 'he's not a serious person and … and therefore it's hard to imagine him being president of the United States.”

Bush also took Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton to task for claiming Libya as a 'great example of smart power.”

'And now we have ISIS and other forms of terrorist groups in Libya that are destabilizing North Africa,” he said. 'So there has to be a clear strategy going forward and I think that does require more than just air power for the United States.”

He called it 'ridiculous” that Obama and Clinton refuse to use the term 'radical Islamic terrorism” to describe what is happening in the Middle East and Europe.

'We're not insulting peace-loving practitioners of the Muslim faith, of the Islamic faith, by calling ISIS a group of Islamic terrorists,” Bush said.

Referring to a newly released email from Clinton in which she called Iowa caucuses participants 'creatures of the extremes,” Bush said she seems 'a little bitter” about finishing third in the Iowa caucuses in 2008.

'She was out-organized,” Bush said. 'The caucuses are a great tool for organization. You can't win the caucuses unless you're really dedicated to getting people to come out. It requires a real solid grass roots effort, and I think that's healthy.”

He has the 'the best organization here in Iowa of any of the campaigns,” Bush said, adding 'We're well organized. We have more public supporters than any campaign.”

However, he wouldn't predict how he'll fare in the Feb. 1 caucuses.

'I'm not going to predict anything. That's a dangerous - that's quicksand,” Bush said.

He's polling in low single digits in Iowa, but Bush said Iowans make up their minds late in the campaign.

'Look, in October or November, even in December of the last two election cycles, the people that were winning in December weren't the ones that ended up winning,” Bush said. 'It's just the nature of the beast.”

Iowa Press can be seen on IPTV at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 and at noon Sunday, at 8:30 a.m. on IPTV World and online at www.IPTV.org beginning this evening.