Obama, Jeb Bush to Join in Education Reform Event at Florida School

They aren't exactly school chums, but President Obama and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush plan to share a stage and also their goals for education reform Friday at an event in Miami.

The White House said the president will talk about "how winning the future in education will require investments that promote shared responsibility among everyone involved; reform at the state and local levels and focus on achieving results."

Bush, who served two terms as Florida's governor, would probably be a rival to the president next year were it not for the plummeting popularity of his brother George W. Bush during the latter's second term in the Oval Office. That seems to have foreclosed the possibility that a third Bush would run for president in 2012.

Clearly, Jeb Bush resented Obama's frequent references to having "inherited" an economic mess from Dubya after he took office in January 2009. Jeb has compared Obama to a kid claiming "the dog ate my homework" and called him "Hubert Humphrey on steroids" -- a reference to Obama's liberalism. More recently, he praised Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels the "anti-Obama" because Daniels does not pretend to have the silky smoothness that Obama displays in public appearances.

But Obama has dropped the blame game from his public comments of late, and honored former President George H.W. Bush with a Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House last month. So there may be a thaw. Jeb Bush's office said this week the ex-governor looks "forward to sharing Florida's model for student success with President Obama and Secretary Duncan."

Obama is traveling to the Sunshine State with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the former Chicago schools chief, for the classroom event at Miami Central High School. But before heading south, the president has a private meeting in Washington with Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff for most of Obama's first two years on the job.

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