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Jeb Bush Tag

Former Florida governor and failed 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush told CNN's David Axelrod, a former Obama adviser, that a Republican should challenge President Trump for the 2020 GOP nomination for president.

Jeb's reasoning, apparently, is that only by running a GOP challenge to the sitting and duly-elected president can the GOP have a "conversation about what it is to be a conservative."

There's seriously nothing better than when people can make fun of themselves and laugh about it. Former GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush did just that in the opening for the Emmys Sunday night. He posed as an Uber driver to get Jimmy Kimmel to the show on time to host:
“I’m in between jobs right now,” the former Florida governor tells Kimmel. Kimmel tells Bush he has to get to the Emmys. “Are you nominated?” Bush asks. “Wow, What’s the like?”

Mike Murphy — who ran Jeb's Super PAC — says that "if it came down to just my vote and I had to decide, I'd probably vote for Hillary and then jump in a lake out of massive depression." Appearing on With All Due Respect, Murphy added that he hopes Trump doesn't win because he's "a demagogue and a neo-racist." Murphy gave Trump a 10% black-swan shot of winning. Murphy says he can't vote for Trump because "I love my country."

Friday afternoon, former Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate, Jeb Bush congratulated Donald Trump on becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Bush went on to explain that while he believes Trump successfully tapped into an undercurrent of anger and dissatisfaction, he will not vote for either Trump or Clinton in the upcoming election. Like many on the #NeverTrump bus, Bush committed to supporting Republican candidates down ballot. Bush's entire statement:
I congratulate Donald Trump on securing his place as the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee. There is no doubt that he successfully tapped into the deep sense of anger and frustration so many Americans around the country rightfully feel today. The tremendous anger of the current U.S. electorate – whether Republican, Democrat or independent – is a result of people fearful about the future, concerned with the direction of our country and tremendously frustrated by the abject failure and inability of leaders in Washington, D.C. to make anything better.

In this edition of Today in Political Attack Ads, no one is handling the mudslinging too well.

Cruz campaign asks stations to stop airing anti-Cruz attack ad

Oh, boo hoo. Politics is a blood sport. Time for everyone to put their big boy pants on and stop whining about attack ads. Politico reports:
Ted Cruz's campaign sent a letter to TV stations across South Carolina and Georgia on Tuesday, demanding that they stop airing what it calls "a false attack ad" from the conservative super PAC American Future Fund that goes after the Texas senator on national security. "The ad falsely claims 'Cruz proposed mass legalization of illegal immigrants.' Ted Cruz has never introduced, outlined, or supported any policy that would give legal status to illegal immigrants," wrote Eric Brown, general counsel to the campaign, in the letter shared with the media. "Indeed, quite the opposite, Ted Cruz led the fight in Congress against legislation written by Senator Rubio, among others, that created legal permanent status for millions of people in the country unlawfully. At least two fact-checks have evaluated this claim and determined it to be false, and others found no evidence to support it.”

Frank Luntz appeared on the Kelly File last night and offered a scathing rebuke of Right to Rise, the Super Pac supporting the candidacy of Jeb Bush which typically attacks Marco Rubio. Luntz said that when all is said and done they will have spent $100 million dollars and that it was wasted. He even said if he was a donor to the organization, he would demand his money back with interest, calling their ads "crap."

From the beginning of his campaign, Jeb Bush has tried to portray himself as his own man who can run on his own merits. His campaign logo of Jeb! even lacks the Bush name. Yet as time grows short and the polls fail to rise, he is increasingly turning to members of his family for support and using the last name which comes with it. Yahoo News reports:

The seemingly non-stop attack ads being run by Jeb's SuperPAC, Right to Rise USA, are causing deep concern among Jeb supporters, the NY Times reports:
When Jeb Bush and his allies began helping the “super PAC” supporting him raise more than $100 million last year, his bid for the Republican nomination seemed like a safe bet. But as Mr. Bush’s campaign continues to lag, his backers are increasingly turning their frustrations over his foundering candidacy on the group, Right to Rise, and its inability to influence the race. Some donors quietly worry about how the cash-rich group is spending its money, confounded by how few tangible results the tens of millions it has pumped into the race so far have yielded. Others have expressed dismay with negative ads Right to Rise has run ....

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:

Employees at Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits arrived Monday morning to find three signs hung on an outdoor display of elephants. The elephants stand in and around one of the museum's tar pits that have seeped natural asphalt for tens of thousands of years. The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum is an active excavation site where archeologists have found and continue to find countless fossils dating back to the Pleistocene epoch, or the earth's last ice age. A 'hello my name is JEB' tag hangs from the tusks of an elephant partially immersed in tar as a visibly worried baby elephant draped with 'Rubio 2016' watches on the perimeter. Another elephant labeled 'establishment GOP' observes the scene nearby. The scene is rich with anti-establishment overtones. Whether one agrees with the artist or not, it was a clever move.

There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Jeb Bush wants to be president.  He doesn't seem to have that "fire in his belly" that his brother so often demonstrated on the campaign trail, and he didn't seem to be very interested in his campaign at the outset beyond the massive fundraising efforts and trying to win support from the traditional GOPe "king makers."  This, actually, is what convinces me that Jeb does want to be president; he's just doing it the old, tired way, a way that simply doesn't work as traditional venues for political campaigns simply don't have the same audience share (and thus power) they once did.  It also doesn't help that the Republican primary voters are fed up with—and actively rebelling against—the traditional "it's your turn now" approach to GOP candidates for president. Jeb and his campaign have a tried a number of strategies to help salvage his campaign, but from cutting staff to clumsy and awkward attacks on Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, his campaign quickly moved from tragedy to farce.

I've been ill the past couple of day with a bad stomach flu, so I had a chance to vegitate in front of the TV. At least on Fox News in Scottsdale, where I am now, it's been nearly non-stop Jeb attack ads on Trump. Not technically Jeb, but the SuperPAC supporting Jeb: This ad epitomizes the inability of Jeb or his supporters to deal with Trump. The overwhelming image in my mind from the ad is of Trump mocking Jeb. See the featured image.

Despite acting a bit more aggressive in the last Republican debate, Jeb Bush has been unable to move his poll numbers up and break away from the pack. Dana Blanton reports at FOX News:
Fox News Poll: Trump jumps, Cruz climbs, Carson sinks in GOP race Donald Trump, a candidate even Republicans once considered a side show, increases his lead yet again in the nomination race, according to the latest Fox News national poll. The poll also finds Ted Cruz ticking up, Marco Rubio slipping, and Ben Carson dropping. Trump hits a high of 39 percent among Republican primary voters, up from 28 percent a month ago. The increase comes mainly from men, white evangelical Christians, and voters without a college degree -- and at the expense of Carson...