Jeb Bush releases almost 300,000 emails and first chapter of book
"I am Jeb," the former Florida governor typed out more than once to constituents who were curious to know if the correspondent answering the emails of jeb@jeb.org was, in fact, Jeb Bush.
Bush released almost 300,000 emails from his time as governor, as well as the 45-page first chapter of an e-book that consists largely of his emails and comments on his emails.
While this correspondence had been obtained by news organizations in late December and published, Bush's release of the same material is far more user-friendly, with emails organized in a calendar, day by day.
The first chapter of Bush's book covers his first several weeks in office and highlights his ambitions on education and Florida's economy, though he also includes more personal responses. The reader will find that Bush liked to keep his BlackBerry close by and used it frequently to keep up via email with Floridians and with his staff. Some constituents questioned whether he was really the correspondent on the other side of their emails.
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One wrote, "Who do I write about the problems the tractor trailers are causing now that they are not allowed in the left lane of I'-75? By the way, are you really Jeb or a staff member? Just curious."
Bush responded, "I am jeb [sic]. You can write Secretary Barry at the DOT in Tallahassee."
The former Florida governor, or "the eGoveror," as he writes he was fond of being called, was also keenly interested in updating his office's website. He included in this chapter two emails to his staff on the matter. One read, "What we have now needs to change and change soon. In addition, we should get rid of the jeb.org web page which has not been updated in a long, long while....[W]e have raised the bar and each day of doing nothing, we are not reaching it. If the campaign had the best web page in the country, why shouldn't the Governor's office?"
Other highlights from those early days in office--Bush told Brian Crowley, a reporter from the Palm Beach Post, that he was having trouble dropping the weight he'd gained during the campaign, but was happy to eat dinner at home with his family most nights. And then, there was this insight about the bathroom: "The governor's bathroom door is the smallest in Florida. It requires a sideways twist to make it in," Bush wrote. Once he wedged himself into the door, Bush had no complaints--" The water pressure up here is great. Great showers!"