There is another Republican debate tonight and Jeb Bush will participate despite his lagging campaign and poll numbers. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has Bush at 4.7 percent.
Jeb’s message never caught on despite plenty of media attention and financial backing. It didn’t help that he is an establishment candidate or that he’s viewed by many as a legacy candidate like Hillary Clinton.
Bush has tried to jump start his campaign by attacking Donald Trump numerous times but that has backfired and worked in Trump’s favor. It might be time for the governor to call it quits.
Perhaps the most telling reason is this photo from a Bush rally last night:
Bush is also getting a message from party insiders.
Eli Stokols reports at Politico:
Republicans warn Bush team against harming RubioJeb Bush called Tuesday for a “leader with a servant’s heart.”“We need a nominee who knows it’s not all about him,” the one-time GOP front-runner said.But, increasingly, establishment Republicans worry that Bush’s campaign is little more than an ego trip. With the former Florida governor now sitting stagnant in the middle of the pack and his super PAC ratcheting up its attacks on Marco Rubio, a growing number of Republican centrists are coming to view Bush’s campaign as a distraction — one that could hurt their ability to keep the nomination away from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.On Monday, the Right to Rise PAC hit the early state airwaves with an ad skewering Bush’s former protégé for flipping on immigration—an issue on which he and Bush actually agree. And on Tuesday, the group unleashed a second ad that portrayed Rubio as a flip-flopper and mocked his heeled boots.These attacks aim to clear some space for Bush in the establishment lane of this sprawling primary fight with the Iowa caucuses just weeks away. But to those who no longer believe Bush can win the Republican nomination, his super PAC, with tens of millions of dollars left to spend, looks more like a wrecking ball meant to lay waste to the one contender many Bush donors see as the last remaining mainstream alternative to Trump or Cruz.
Anna Palmer, also of Politico reports another blow for the governor:
Pro-Jeb Bush super PAC shuts downThe pro-Jeb Bush super PAC Vamos for Jeb 2016 is shuttering its doors.The group, which was formed by political website Elephant News founder Claire Hardwick, sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission Tuesday announcing its decision to disband.”The committee has not raised nor dispersed any funds and would like to accordingly terminate and be discontinued,” wrote Andrea Wong, the treasurer for the super PAC. “Up to this point the only activity done were social media pages on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook which have been deactivated.”
Expect Bush to continue attacking Trump in the debate tonight.
It’s all he has left.
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