2nd LD Writethru: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush announces 2016 presidential bid

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Monday joined an already crowded Republican presidential field with a vow to fix a "dysfunctional Washington".

With his entry, the Republican field is filled with 11 major candidates pursuing presidential nomination.

Though a Republican establishment candidate, Bush, 62, joined other Republican hopefuls to distance themselves from politics in Washington and blamed the U.S. government for problems facing the country.

"We'll take Washington -- the static capital of this dynamic country -- and turn it out of the business of causing problems," Bush told a rally at the Kendall campus of Miami Dade College in his home state of Florida, where he was a two-term governor.

"The party now in the White House is planning a no-suspense primary for a no-change election, to hold onto power, to slog on with the same agenda under another name," Bush said. "America deserves better."

The former Florida governor has stumbled since announcing he would explore a bid for the White House late last year.

His early exploration scared off few, if any, potential rivals. He flubbed questions last month about the Iraq War and his brother, former President George W. Bush.

Before his Monday announcement, Bush, also the son of former President George H.W. Bush, had worked hard to prove that he was his own man in terms of foreign policy.

During his speech on Monday, Bush walked a fine line in criticizing Obama's recent overtures toward Cuba, as Washington moves to normalize relations with the Caribbean island nation after five decades of animosity.

"We don't need a glorified tourist to go to Havana in support of a failed Cuba," Bush said to applause from an audience that included Cuban-Americans. "We need an American president to go to Havana in solidarity with a free Cuban people, and I am ready to be that president."

Bush also touched on education and school choice, issues he is controversially known for in Florida due to his continued support for Common Core education standards, which spell out what math and reading skills students should have in each grade.

"Every school should have high standards, and the federal government should have nothing to do with setting them," Bush said. "When a school is just another dead end, every parent should have the right to send their child to a better school -- public, private, or charter."

"Nationwide, if I am president, we will take the power of choice away from the unions and bureaucrats and give it back to parents," he said.

On Sunday, the Bush campaign team released a new logo "Jeb!" that conspicuously leaves out the Bush surname, which is expected to be both his largest asset and biggest problem in the next 17 months.

Meanwhile, though regarded by many as the front-runner in the Republican field, latest polls show that Bush fares no better than other Republican candidates against Hillary Clinton, the undisputable front-runner in the Democratic Party. Endi