Gwen’s Take: The Jeb and Hillary chronicles

Living in the shadows can be such a drag. But it’s demonstrably worse if the shadow is cast by somebody who used to be President of the United States.

You could argue that Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are not the first two Oval Office aspirants who have had to cope with this uniquely first world problem.

It could not have been a walk in the park for John Quincy Adams or Franklin D. Roosevelt to tread in the path of famous relatives. Then, as now, voters were on the hunt for something fresh. Perhaps that’s why only four sitting vice presidents have ever managed to be elected to succeed the leader they served.

Interestingly, the last man who pulled that off was George H.W. Bush, who was able to parlay his time as Ronald Reagan’s No. 2 to the presidency in 1988.

H.W. Bush (not to be confused with the son who would follow him some years later), is probably the most uniquely positioned to know what it’s like to cast a long shadow.

In his 1999 book, “All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings,” he demonstrated that he knew well the perils of dynasty.

The Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada surfaced a fascinating letter Bush wrote to his sons in 1998 that managed to capture a father’s hurt, pride and determination in a single missive.

The 41st president began by noting that their mother had mentioned to him that they were worried about negative stories written about the his presidency — by then six years past.

“Do not worry when you see the stories that compare you favorably to a Dad for whom English was a second language and for whom the word destiny meant nothing.”

He continued: “That can be hurtful to a family that loves each other. That can hurt you boys who have been wonderful to me, you two of whom I am so very proud. But the advice is don’t worry about it. At some point both of you may want to say, ‘Well, I don’t agree with my Dad on that point’ or ‘Frankly I think Dad was wrong on that.’ Do it. Chart your own course, not just on the issues but on defining yourselves.”

Two years later, George W. was elected president. And this week, Jeb — now teeing up his own run — made headlines by doing exactly what his Dad advised.

“I love my brother. I love my dad,” he said during a closely-watched foreign policy speech. “I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make, but I am my own man.” Then he went on to admit that mistakes had indeed been made in Iraq — on his Dad’s watch.

Somewhere between now and the end of the year, Hillary Clinton can be expected to deliver a version of that same speech. She will certainly want to embrace the good news from the Bill Clinton years, including the legacy of a strong economy under her husband’s presidency. But it’s inevitable that she too will need to establish herself as — in this case — her own woman.

So much in politics is unpredictable. This is not.