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Este informe no está disponible en español. THE WALL STREET JOURNALCampaign 2000The Newest Bush Scion Attempts To Translate His Uncle to Latinosby RUDY KLEYSTEUBERAugust 3, 2000
The event, called "Bienvenidos a Philadelphia," was intended to showcase the Republican Party's Hispanic support base. Instead, it did exactly the opposite. George P. Bush gave a few remarks, some in Spanish, and introduced his uncle. But the Hispanic turnout was sparse. Signs supporting Texas Gov. Bush were written in Spanish, but some of the College Republicans holding them didn't understand the language. Puerto Rican singer Carlo Ponce paused in a song to ask, only half-joking, "There's a few Latinos here, right?" The tepid response highlighted just how daunting the task is facing the Bush family's latest star, George Prescott Bush. He is the son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the governor's Mexican-born wife, Columba. Journalists already have branded the handsome, 24-year-old Mr. Bush the Ricky Martin of the Republican Party. When he arrived in Philadelphia Wednesday for the convention, Gov. Bush referred to George P. as "the hot member of the family." But, despite recent media attention, young Mr. Bush is still largely unknown to the Hispanic population that the Bush presidential campaign hopes to reach. "I heard about him on the news today. That was the first time I heard about him," says Melisa Solivan, 22, who is of Puerto Rican descent. Her Republican parents brought her to Gov. Bush's reception. Brooke Brody-Waite, who isn't Latino, says that a month ago she had never heard of George P. Bush either. But when she saw his face in the newspaper, she immediately cut it out. "I saw he was very handsome," says Ms. Brody-Waite, 20, who says she was "surprised to see he was a Bush." But Ms. Brody-Waite, a Republican, says that though George P. Bush is now a household name with those active within the party, he hasn't been particularly visible in the general public. "I was impressed that he had been on the campaign trail for so long, and that I had never heard of him," she says. If George P. Bush is a secret to many Hispanics and young voters, it certainly isn't the fault of the Republicans, who have been flaunting his ethnicity and youthful appeal since the day he enlisted with the Bush campaign. He has starred in several commercials, which he narrates in English or Spanish. Tonight, he will speak on prime-time television before his uncle's acceptance speech at the convention. On Tuesday night, he was interviewed on CNN's "Larry King Live."
But with less than a month before he has to return to the University of Texas in Austin for law school, Mr. Bush has a limited amount of time in which to make people notice what he has to say about George W. Bush. "I know there's been skepticism about the word 'compassionate conservative,' " young Mr. Bush said recently in an event for Washington-area young Hispanic Republicans. "But it's up to us to convey the true ingredients of why it will resonate among Latinos." He is trying to convince the nation's Hispanics that they are really conservatives at heart, while telling America's youth that his uncle truly values their generation. But the good looks that propelled George P. Bush into the limelight might soon be his biggest obstacle. "The media tend to focus on his looks to grab the attention of the American public," says Ida Wahlquist-Ortiz, a young Hispanic of Ecuadorean descent. She says such coverage "creates a superficial outlook of what happens in our government." Karl Rove, Gov. Bush's top campaign strategist, says the Bush campaign plans to keep its Hispanic spokesman as visible as possible. "He'll be around to the degree that his studies allow," he says. The campaign will continue to draw on the film vault for George P. footage. And Mr. Rove predicts that he will help with some "surrogate stuff" from law school. The question is whether that will be enough to sway young Hispanic voters whom young Mr. Bush has attracted. Sarah Cruz came to the welcoming festivities representing the Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She first heard of George P. Bush about a week ago. "I heard he's gorgeous," she says. "He's a teacher, he's young, he looks kind of like John F. Kennedy." Ms. Cruz, 32, is exactly the kind of voter the GOP wants to target: She's a Democrat, but she is considering voting for Gov. Bush. She isn't ready to switch parties just yet, but she is keeping a close eye on the Bush camp to see if it exemplifies the diversity it has tried so hard to advertise. "I would choose a family that's diverse, and who could relate to my issues," she says.
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PHILADELPHIA -- At the morning welcome reception for George W. Bush, the music was Latin and a major attraction aside from the presidential candidate was the GOP's hottest new hunk: young George P. Bush.
The media has followed George P. with a ravenous appetite for the material he produces. On Sunday, for example, while other Republicans geared up for convention parties, the young Mr. Bush whacked weeds with a machete in a nearby Philadelphia park for the benefit of TV and radio reporters. He also has been profiled in several newspapers. And People magazine called him one of the country's most eligible bachelors.