There were rumors during the 2012 election that the Bushies did not go all in for Romney and maybe worked to undermine his campaign. The argument being that they wanted to make sure the field was clear in 2016 for Jeb to run. On its face it never made a lot of sense because Jeb looked like a guy uninterested in running. Unlike his brother, Jeb never got a chance to cash in on the family name. He made some decent money in the 80’s, but not plutocrat money.

Here we are two years on and that theory is sounding more plausible. Maybe Jeb was plotting this move all along. Romney winning would have scuttled that plan. The earliest Jeb could make a run would have been 2020 and that would be pushing it. Odds are he was looking at 2024 when he was in his late 60’s and a political has-been. Running in 2016 looked a slot better for Jeb so undermining Romney would have made a lot of sense, assuming they are that Machiavellian.

Romney is sort of confirming those suspicions now that he is plotting to get in the race.

Mitt Romney forcefully declared his interest in a third presidential run to a room full of powerful Republican donors on Friday, disrupting the fluid 2016 GOP field as would-be rival Jeb Bush was moving swiftly to consolidate establishment support.

Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has been mulling another campaign for several months, but his comments Friday mark a clear step forward in his thinking and come amid mounting tensions between the Romney and Bush camps.

“I want to be president,” Romney told about 30 donors in New York. He said that his wife, Ann — who last fall said she was emphatically against a run — had changed her mind and was now “very encouraging,” although their five sons remain split, according to multiple attendees.

Advisers said Romney discussed the race with his family over the holidays, where they spent time skiing in Park City, Utah, but he insisted that he has not made up his mind whether to run. Advisers said he recognizes that he would not be able to waltz into the nomination and that the intra-party competition is shaping up to be stiffer in next year’s primaries than it was in 2012.

Bush’s sudden focus on the race in recent weeks has put pressure on Romney to decide soon. Romney has been in regular conversations with major donors, some of whom are pushing him to run again, but confidants have also warned him that his window of opportunity could shut if he does not declare his intentions within 30 to 60 days.

Conservatives may still mad about the Bushies pulling their punches in 2012, so goosing Romney to run again would severely complicate the Jeb coronation. His game plan relies on the field splintering amongst a number of candidates, letting him hoover up the big money and establishment support so he can outlast whoever emerges from the scramble. Romney will have plenty of money and plenty of organizational support, so it would be a two-man battle.

For those hoping for a white knight emerges to cobble together the disparate components of the Right and carry the nomination in 2016, this is good news. Jeb Bush is probably the worst possible choice for president. Even Elizabeth Warren would be better and she’s as dumb as a plank and has a head full of nonsense. Jeb Bush would go a long way toward discrediting the Republican establishment and the neocons who still infest the party, as well as Conservative Inc.