Over the years many gubernatorial and presidential candidates have spoken at the school, including Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, and Alan Keyes. Democrats tend to avoid the school, and on a
national level, it is mainly Republicans who appear there (see Southern strategy).On February 2, 2000, George W. Bush, while campaigning to become U.S. President, addressed the
school's chapel service. Many people, including many American conservatives, disagreed with Bush's decision to speak at the
controversial institution. Bush's speech did not include any mention of either the school's ban on interracial dating or its
alleged anti-Catholic sentiments. Following public outcry, the Bush campaign promptly released remarks declaring that Bush was
neither anti-Catholic nor a racist, and that his brother Jeb Bush could not have
dated his wife (who is Latina) if he had attended the school (Bush's campaign
apparently misunderstood the difference between ethnicity and race). Bush also appeared before the press to deny that he either
knew or approved of what he regarded as the school's intolerant policies.On February 26, after twenty-four days of considerable media pressure,
Bush also wrote a formal letter of apology to Cardinal John O'Connor of New York for failing to denounce Bob
Jones University's history of strongly anti-Catholic prejudice (among
other things, the university's founder once called the Catholic Church a "satanic cult").
At a news conference following the letter's release, Bush stated: "I make no excuses. I had an opportunity and I missed it. I
regret that." and "I wish I had gotten up then and seized the moment to set a tone, a tone that I had set in Texas, a positive
and inclusive tone."On March 3, the school issued a "Letter to the Nation" defending their position
and arguing that the real issue of the media pressure was religious
freedom.
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