Jeb Bush op-ed has Republicans wondering about run

With conservatives seemingly still unwilling to coalesce around a Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the 43rd U.S. president and son of the 41st, is raising eyebrows today with a Wall Street Journal op-ed extolling the virtues of the free market.

In the piece, Bush channels campaign-style rhetoric, leading some conservative commentators to question whether he might launch a late-inning jump into a chaotic GOP field.

"Have we lost faith in the free-market system of entrepreneurial capitalism? Are we no longer willing to place our trust in the creative chaos unleashed by millions of people pursuing their own best economic interests?" Bush writes.

Byron York, a columnist for the Washington Examiner, wondered on Twitter what Bush intended by the piece.

"Trial balloon? Jeb Bush pens campaign-like economic manifesto for WSJ," York tweeted.

The article comes just days after influential New York Times columnist David Brooks suggested on NPR that Bush could launch an outside presidential campaign if Newt Gingrich fared well through the early primaries.

"I'm not holding out hope, but I do think it's a remote possibility. I do think the Republican Party is not going to nominate Newt Gingrich. If he emerges from the early primaries as the front-runner, someone's going to step in," Brooks said.

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