“I just cringed,” said one member of Jeb Bush’s extended circle of advisers when asked his reaction to Bush’s recent mini-tantrum on the state of the Republican presidential race. “Every politician, at some point, and sometimes justifiably, is pissed off at the voters. But you can’t display your frustration with the public.”
That’s what Bush did, thrusting into public view the deep frustration that has been building as his once-mighty campaign slipped behind not only Donald Trump but other GOP rivals as well.
“If this election is about how we’re going to fight to get nothing done, then I don’t want to have any part of it,” Bush told a Republican gathering in South Carolina Saturday. “I’ve got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around and be miserable, listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them. That is a joke. Elect Trump if you want that.”
The short version: I don’t need this. The other guy’s a clown, but if that’s what you want, vote for him. I’ve got better things to do.
It’s probably an understatement to say voters don’t like such talk. “It’s a non-winning message,” said the adviser.
The outburst left other campaigns aghast. As news spread, a strategist for one of Bush’s rivals debated with friends whether Bush would be out of the race by Thanksgiving, or perhaps Christmas. “If they announced tomorrow that he was out, it wouldn’t surprise me,” the strategist said. “I don’t know that he survives until New Hampshire.”
As Bush huddled with supporters, plus the two Presidents Bush, in Houston Monday, political insiders marveled at how a campaign in such deep trouble could still be boasting of having the cash that will allow Bush to compete next March, even if he loses contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Just last week, a top Bush strategist was suggesting that the campaign’s money will ultimately overcome voter rejection.
Now, the question is: March? Jeb might not even make it to Iowa.
Some political insiders are baffled by the decisions made by the managers of Bush’s much-ballyhooed $100 million super PAC. Yes, the cash could come in handy in the distant future. But the situation is desperate now. Donald Trump is killing Bush. Why not use the money to kill Trump first, or at least try? Isn’t that what negative ads are for?
“He has a super PAC with $100 million in it that has just sat there while they watched their candidate get destroyed,” a veteran strategist not affiliated with any campaign said. “This is like if Travis at the Alamo had 10,000 soldiers he could call up and said no, we don’t need them. What are they going to do with the money — declare a dividend?”
Meanwhile, in the face of the mortal threat from Trump, BushWorld continues to focus on Marco Rubio as its true rival. A Washington Post story from Houston Monday night was headlined, “At a gathering of Bushes, the focus turns to Rubio as a key opponent.”
“Bush ultimately sees Rubio, who is rising in the polls, as the biggest obstacle in the lane he is trying to take to the GOP nomination,” the paper reported.
Trump is killing Bush. And Bush is fixating on Rubio. The Bush campaign has made an apparently irrevocable decision to focus on potential future threats instead of immediate, mortal danger. “They’re talking about winning Florida,” the unaffiliated strategist said. “They’re not going to be in the race.”
There is always the possibility that no amount of money, and no shift in strategy, could save Bush. Even if the race miraculously turned into the kind of higher-minded affair Bush would prefer, there’s a real chance voters would reject him anyway.
Bush wants to tell the public about his solid, conservative record as governor of Florida. It’s true. He was a solid, conservative governor of Florida. But Bush was first elected 17 years ago and left office almost nine years ago. After that, he mostly sat out the battles of the Obama years that so galvanized today’s conservative activists.
That, along with his name, has made Bush seem like a figure from the past. “It’s just the wrong cycle to have the last name Bush and be talking about what you did 10 or 15 years ago,” says a strategist for another GOP campaign. Even if there were no Trump, voters might gravitate toward a newer candidate.
Bush is in deep, deep trouble, but he still has the resources to make it a good fight — if he stops thinking about March and starts thinking more about today.
