The man who many on the right wanted to see run for President this year has said what many of us on the left have been saying for the past several years; the right is too far right for people like Reagan and even Bush, sr.:

“Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad — they would have a hard time if you define the Republican party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement, doesn’t allow for finding some common ground,” Bush said, adding that he views the hyper-partisan moment as “temporary.”
“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport,” he said. Reagan “would be criticized for doing the things that he did.”

Bush cited, in particular, “the budget deal my dad did, with bipartisan support — at least for a while — that created the spending restraint of the ‘90s,” a reference to a move widely viewed now as a political disaster for Bush, breaking a pledge against tax increases and infuriating conservatives. It was, Bush said, “helpful in creating a climate of more sustainted economic growth.”

“Politically it clearly didn’t work out — he was a one term president,” his son said.

But then Jeb loses a regular train of thought and goes into a partisan one:

And Bush also blamed President Obama for much of the conflict.

I don’t know how much more Obama could have done to bring left and right together. He constantly made pitches and attempts to partisanship, but the GOP took the “our way or the highway” approach.

But what about Obama’s predecessor? That was another Bush. That was a President who had a White House staff and even vice-President who called into question the patriotism of anyone who dare questioned them. That was an administration that would call you a terrorist if you didn’t back them all the way. It was a highly divisive time created by the GOP.

Yes we have a problem in this country with partisanship and it does come from both sides, but until the leaders of both parties are willing to calm things down and the media is willing to stop giving so much air time to the biggest hacks, then this problem is here to stay.