WITH an approval rating of 63%, one Bush is riding high in the polls. But his first name is Jeb and he will be out of office by January. Republicans who think he is too good a politician to waste are hoping to persuade the governor of Florida to become Senator John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election.

President George W Bush’s younger brother is keeping busy during his final months in power after running one of America’s most critical swing states for nearly eight years. Next month he is travelling to Britain and Ireland for nine days on behalf of “Team Florida”, visiting Farnborough air show and promoting local business links.

British officials believe it is an unusually long stay for an outgoing governor, which suggests he has a wider agenda. In April he visited Afghanistan and Iraq, an essential trip for presidential hopefuls.

“If only his last name was Smith,” sighed Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard, the right-wing political magazine. “He’d be the prohibitive frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.”

In The Family, a book about the Bush dynasty, Kitty Kelley recounts how in 1998, George W and Jeb, then both governors, were asked about the presidency. “Listen, I didn’t want to grow up wanting to be president of the United States,” said George W.

“I did,” said Jeb.

“Yeah,” George W replied. “You did.”

There was more than a touch of sibling rivalry. Jeb was regarded as more gifted and able than George W, the black sheep, who drank too much. But the younger Bush, now 53 and 6ft 4in tall, has had to shelve his White House ambitions, at least temporarily, on the grounds that America has had its fill of Bushes (their father, George H Bush was the 41st president). “He knows he has to wait it out,” said Barnes.

Bush remains popular because of his record in creating jobs, cutting taxes and holding down spending, his support for family values — despite daughter Noelle’s experience of drug addiction — and promotion of educational reform. George W said twice last month Jeb would make “a great president”, prompting him to rule it out.

That still leaves a vacancy for what for many Republicans would be a dream ticket: McCain-Bush in 2008, with Jeb Bush making up for McCain’s more prickly relationship with traditional conservatives.

Bush’s Hispanic wife could help to attract Latino voters, a key constituency that Karl Rove, George W’s electoral guru, has been courting heavily. His popularity in Florida could virtually guarantee that state for the Republicans.

In December McCain travelled to Florida for a private lunch with Bush, where he is thought to have sounded him out about working together. Mark McKinnon, George W’s media adviser in the 2000 and 2004 elections, who has teamed up with McCain, accompanied the Arizona senator on the trip.

“Jeb Bush will be on anybody’s shortlist [for vice-president],” McKinnon said. “He’s got incredible experience, unqualified conservative credentials and he brings Florida. It’s the trifecta.”

According to his spokeswoman, Bush is “not interested” in running for anything. Yet he was complimentary about McCain to Barnes, praising the senator’s calls for Congress to cut spending.

“I like McCain,” Bush said. His advice was: “Really try to relate to the [Republican] base. Our base is really the heartbeat of America . . . people of faith, middle-class people, small business owners.”

The Family Research Council, an evangelical group, has invited Bush to a conference this autumn on “values voters”, code for God-fearing anti-gay-marriage and pro-family voters from Middle America who did so much to win the last election for George W.

“Jeb Bush would stand out as a candidate. He’s been fantastic for families in Florida,” said Tom McCluskey, the organisation’s spokesman. “Unfortunately, there is the curse of the family name. It’s unfortunate, but true: a substantial part of the population would automatically vote against him.”

The same goes for Hillary Clinton, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of husband Bill for the Democrats. But a recent poll by Fox News showed her trouncing Jeb by 51% to 35% in any presidential match-up, suggesting that voters are more tired of his name than hers.

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