Jeb Bush endorses Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate

Well, make that Jeb Bush Jr.

Received via e-mail from the Rubio campaign:

Today I would like to let you know that I will be enthusiastically supporting my friend Marco Rubio for his bid for the United States Senate.

Florida and our country are at a crossroads. Not only in our economic life, but in who we are as Republicans.

My choice was a simple one: Marco Rubio represents the best in what our Party should strive to be and who it must engage – he is young, conservative, and believes in the principles of our Founding Fathers, that individual freedom and liberty are what makes our country great and always will.

Marco Rubio is a candidate who can help to bring our Party back on track by reaching out to our youth, entrepreneurs, Hispanics and those who believe that if you work hard enough, anything you dream can be achieved. With Marco, we have a great opportunity to elect a true conservative and a greater obligation to elect a man of principle.

As Talking Points Memo notes, Bush's dad, Jeb Sr. is still popular and Florida - and probably would have been a shoe-in if he had run for the Senate. Whether that popularity has passed on to his son - who last year endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president - and to Rubio's benefit in his race against Gov. Charlie Crist, remains to be seen.