"I think in Washington during my brother's time, Republicans spent too much money. I think he could have used the veto power," Bush said toward the end of a two-day campaign swing through New Hampshire. "He could have brought budget discipline to Washington, D.C."
The remark, made when Bush was asked to distinguish himself from his brother, came during a shift in campaign style for the former Florida governor, who — after months of relentlessly raising money to support his likely run for president, and unquestionably his roughest week in politics this year — is spending more time talking about himself.
While that includes telling stories about meeting his wife as a foreign exchange student in Mexico, and his record while serving two terms as Florida's governor, they are stories that aren't all that new. The criticism of his brother's time as president is.
"I'm blessed to be a member of the Bush family, but I also have lived my own life," Bush said Thursday.
Although Bush said earlier in the week that "the ship is stable," the shift in approach is an acknowledgement of what may be his biggest challenge in the 2016 presidential primaries. While most voters can't help but know Bush's name, thanks to his father's and brother's presidencies, they don't yet know much about him.
"I didn't know what to expect," said Peter Rice, a retired Marine who attended a business round table with Bush on Wednesday. "I think he has more to offer the Oval Office than his brother did. And he does not come off as elitist, as his father sometimes did."
How Bush believes he differs from his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and brother led off his appearance before roughly 50 small business owners in Concord the next day.
"Apparently there's a little confusion that all family members are supposed to be clones of one another," Bush said.
That discussion point has become all the more important since he struggled last week to answer questions about the 2003 war in Iraq — a nation both his father and brother invaded while commander in chief.
The Iraq war is among the most defining aspects of George W. Bush's presidency. More than 4,400 U.S. service personnel died, with many more severely wounded, in a war that cost at least $1.7 trillion and was justified by faulty intelligence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. None were ever found.
It was a week he ended by telling reporters he wouldn't "go out of my way" to point out what he saw as mistakes by either former Bush president. "It's just not going to happen," he said. Yet when asked to distinguish himself from his brother on Thursday, Bush did so with the critique of his older brother's fiscal record.
Since expressing interest in running for president in 2016 four months ago, Bush has spent much of his time speaking to private fundraisers aimed at fueling the super political action committee that's expected to advocate for his candidacy once he enters the race later this summer.
The mission now is to combat the appearance of Bush's imminent campaign is a foregone conclusion, aides said. That's a real concern for Bush, said Tom Rath, a New Hampshire Republican who supported George W. Bush in 2000 and advised 2012 nominee Mitt Romney.
"The name is so well-known and comes with the perception of a front-runner," Rath said. "That can be off-putting in New Hampshire. It's a problem they are going to continue to have."
And so in the past week, Bush has moved to spending more time at events with politically influential audiences, such as small groups of Republican National Committee members at a party meeting in Arizona, and Republican officials and groups in Iowa, home of the leadoff caucuses.
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