Posted at 03:15 PM ET, 10/25/2011

EXCLUSIVE: Jeb Bush denounces birtherism

By Jennifer Rubin

Former Florida Republican governor Jeb Bush has said he won’t endorse anyone in the presidential primary. He has said he won’t run in 2012. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about the Republican Party or the conservative movement. In a rare intervention into electoral politics since his departure from the Florida governorship, he decided that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s venture into birtherism has gone on long enough. In an exclusive statement to Right Turn, he e-mailed me: “Republican candidates should categorically reject the notion that President Obama was not born in the United States. It is a complete distraction from the failed economic policies of the President.â€