Sensing that the end is near, 62-year-old former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush continues to lash out at GOP front-runner real estate mogul Donald Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. Once considered a shoe-in for the GOP nomination, Bush collected more cash from his Super Pac than any other GOP or Democratic candidate. His freefall started last summer when Jeb found himself eclipsed on the campaign trail by Trump and retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Carson polled even with Trump in August, besting him for a short time before the media exposed the 63-year doctor as an imposter, especially when it came to knowing anything about foreign or domestic policy. When he called the terror group “hummus,” not Hamas Dec. 3, his campaign sank like a rock. One month away from the Feb. 1 Iowa caucus, Carson’s all but a footnote.
Ripping Trump and Hillary, Bush hopes to convince what’s left of his backers to give him a second chance before Iowa starts voting. Recent polls indicate that Bush is near the bottom of the GOP pack with no one listening before the voting begins. Telling a crowd near Miami that Hillary “has no clue” and that Trump “is not serious about being a candidate,” Jeb hopes to keep himself relevant. His spirited exchange with Trump at CNN’s Dec. 15 debate made Jeb look desperate and petty. Interrupting Trump out-of-turn showed Jeb’s surly side, turning off 18 million viewers, handing Trump his biggest victory yet. Calling Trump a “great politician” who “fills the space,” Jeb refuses to give Trump any credit as front-runner. Unlike Jeb, Trump’s perceived by voters as strong-and-decisive, polar opposites. Jeb’s closing remarks sounded more like an exercise in stammering than a GOP candidate.
Jeb lost his appeal to voters the more he appeared next to other candidates on the debate stage, begging Aug. 7 with the first Fox News Debate. There was little forgiveness for the younger brother of former President George W. Bush, who’s struggled from Day 1 to develop his own identity. While it’s been nearly seven years since “W: left office, the public remembers the disastrous Iraq War and crash of the U.S. economy. Jeb had difficulty separating himself from his brother’s economic and domestic policies, leaving the U.S. economy in the so-called “Great Recession,” one step removed from another Depression. Jeb’s attempts to say “he was his own man” backfired in the debates and campaign trail. Despite having the biggest war chest, it couldn’t make up for Jeb’s lackluster personality, receiving Trump’s critique as the low-energy GOP candidate.
Showing his desperation today, Jeb challenged Trump to a face-to-face, one-on-one debate, a kind of political dual. “Donald, I’ll take you on one-on-one in a debate, anytime, anyplace at the Forum Club in Palm Beach, Fl. “You name it, and I’ll do it,” insisted Jeb, getting zero response from the Trump campaign Keeping Trump or Hillary in the news, Jeb hopes to keep the media paying attention. None of the GOP’s 15 remaining candidates like the fact that Trump sucks the oxygen out of the room, leaving no publicity for other candidates. Unlike Trump, Jeb offers nothing new, insisting that he’d be different from his brother, “W.” Trump’s been the GOP’s most vocal critic of “W” ‘’s foreign policy, especially the Iraq War that turned the Mideast on its head, opening the floodgates of Islamic terrorism, giving rise to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] and destabilizing the region.
Calling Trump the “chaos candidate,” who’d, in turn, make a “chaos president,” Jeb contrasted himself as having a “steady hand.” “W” often described his presidency has having a “steady hand,” despite flooding the Mideast with terrorism. Trump wouldn’t give Jeb the time-of-day, especially debating him one-on-one. Grabbing headlines has backfired for Jeb in the past and won’t get him anywhere today. Trump has called Bush a “loser,’ lacking the energy to be president. Jeb’s campaign sank under its own weight, exciting few voters, without responding to Trump’s barbs. Like Jeb, no one in the Republican Party, certainly not Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, acknowledges that Trump has a very real possibility of taking the GOP nomination. Only yesterday, former President Bill Clinton, acknowledged that Trump could very well win it all.
Out of elective office sine Jan. 5, 2007, Jeb couldn’t get the rust out of his failed presidential campaign. Outmatched by Trump and other GOP candidates, Jeb’s left with a bitter taste running for president, taking some $100 million and delivering nothing to his Super Pac donors. Put on the defensive by Trump in all the GOP debates, Jeb’s counter-attacks backfire, making him look weak and ineffectual. Whether it was too soon for another Bush to run for president is anyone’s guess. Looks now like Jeb wasn’t ready for the rough-and-tumble, certainly not going up against someone with the bigger-than-life stature of Donald Trump. Like Hillary found out recently, going after Trump opens up a can of worms, especially for Bush whose campaign hasn’t gained traction with voters. Instead of attacking Trump, Bush would spend his political capital more wisely focusing on himself.
