"[Jeb] doesn't have to win until he gets to Nevada and Super Tuesday. He's the one person with the ties to the establishment and the organization in every state. There are Bush people in every state, whether it be for the father Bush, the younger Bush or Jeb," Thompson says. "Other candidates have to start showing victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. Bush doesn't have to have that. He's got the luxury he's got enough money to continue advertising. Jeb doesn't have to win the first three states."...So a man who's been exposed as incapable of winning voters through campaigning nevertheless has his preexisting pile of money and can use that to jam the airwaves and crowd out candidates who might be able to look great fighting Hillary next fall. Thanks a lot, Tommy. You're the perfect carrier of that message.
... Thompson says Super Tuesday – the March 1 set of primaries set mostly in the south – is when "Bush will shine" due to his ability to advertise in many markets at one time....
ADDED: This NYT article — "Jeb Bush Sprints to Escape Donald Trump’s ‘Low Energy’ Label" — seems really slanted pro-Bush. It calls his speech "forceful and freewheeling" and says he spoke to a "rapt crowd."
How many people does it take to make a "crowd" and what does the look on its face need to be before a reporter can call it "rapt." "Rapt" — according to the OED — means: "Originally: transported in spirit by or as though by religious feeling or inspiration; (hence more generally) absorbed, enthralled; fascinated, intent."
The OED connects this word to the Latin version of 2 Corinthians 12:2, which, in English, is: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows." In Latin, the boldfaced part is: raptum..usque ad tertium caelum.
AND: You know, Jeb's going to need those people to vote. He can't be losing them to The Rapture.
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22 comments:
Somebody needs to rapture Jeb up to the Third Heaven. He is no earthly good.
Maybe Jeb's second choice is not Marco Rubio.
The establishment is pulling out all the stops to derail Trump. There is another agenda here.
I'm trying to figure it out. Maybe it's amnesty that is in danger.
They are pretty much getting everything else they want.
"So a man who's been exposed as incapable of winning voters through campaigning nevertheless has his preexisting pile of money and can use that to jam the airwaves and crowd out candidates who might be able to look great fighting Hillary next fall."
JEB's poll numbers may be poor, but not one caucus or primary vote has been cast at this point. Elections are determined by actual votes, not polls. If JEB has the funds and the desire to continue through South Carolina, or beyond, that's his decision.
Everybody else, including the "experts", should shut up and let the voters make the decision, not the handful of people who happened to answer the phone when the pollsters called.
"Maybe Jeb's second choice is not Marco Rubio."
Maybe it's Hillary.
Sit out the early primaries, and then win it on Super Tuesday. This is exactly the strategy that President Giuliani used.
I don't have an OED, but I assume that yours mentioned that 'rapt' is the archaic past participle of 'rape'? (Of course, rape originally meant 'to seize or abduct,' as with Belinda's lock, or the Sabine women.) Thus, a "rapt crowd" is literally a raped crowd. Wondering if the Times is trying to perpetuate rape culture, implying that the low-energy Bush is able to do that to a whole crowd, I find myself fascinated, absorbed, intent or enthralled.
Tommy Thompson coat tails!
Saw Jeb's SuperPAC TV ad here in New Hampshire over the weekend. "Standing up to the Bully" wherein Jeb quakingly calls out Trump for insulting folks. Perhaps the lamest ad I've seen this year. Probably drove strong horse voters to Trump if anything. At this point, team Jeb is spending money cause they have money. Guess they can't just give it back.
There's a lot of ruin in a Governor.
"The establishment is pulling out all the stops to derail Trump. There is another agenda here.
I'm trying to figure it out. Maybe it's amnesty that is in danger.
They are pretty much getting everything else they want."
Except winning the Presidency.
garage mahal said...
Tommy Thompson coat tails!
12/30/15, 8:56 AM
Glenn Howes said...
Saw Jeb's SuperPAC TV ad here in New Hampshire over the weekend. "Standing up to the Bully" wherein Jeb quakingly calls out Trump for insulting folks. Perhaps the lamest ad I've seen this year. Probably drove strong horse voters to Trump if anything. At this point, team Jeb is spending money cause they have money. Guess they can't just give it back.
12/30/15, 9:00 AM
True. Can't give it back, can't look like he isn't trying less he quit politics altogether. Garage has a point about Thompson, too bad he can't connect the dots and see that Hillary has the same problem that Jeb and Thompson have plus she faces a lot of scandals in the near future.
"They are pretty much getting everything else they want."
Except winning the Presidency."
Yes but they are getting what they want without the blame when it all blows up in our faces.
Read about our new masters.
@Althouse, regarding your 8:36 comment, have you considered that perhaps Hillary is the 2nd choice of Jeb's donors ?
Jeb hasn't been a governor for nearly a decade and he has the Bush name to contend with (which also includes the idea that the US sort of recoils from the concept of an aristocracy). He isn't charismatic (low energy is an apt description) and doesn't have an issue or issues to run on. (He could pick the pressing issue of the US's fiscal doom over the next 25 years as debt continues to mount but this is a minor issue in his campaign).
Jeb is running on the promise and record of being a competent, compassionate conservative. Sort of a blend of Romney's good manager, W's concern for Latinos and aid to Africa and faith based government social welfare spending, and HW's realpolitick foreign policy.
Rubio is W. redux but with some youthful charisma like Obama and Bill Clinton. I think Jeb is more conservative than Rubio. But Rubio is beating Jeb and they are pretty close on the major issues. That Jeb won't drop out in favor of Rubio, and that the party dinosaurs like Tommy T and others wouldn't be pushing Jeb hard to drop out in favor of Rubio, speaks very poorly about them. They are either deluded about Jeb's chances or so loyal to the Bushes that they are causing much more harm to the national Republican Party than Trump ever could. Jeb has money and establishment backing but isn't competitive and is not going to be competitive. Rubio is the establishments best chance. That they can't get Jeb (and Christie, although his push for fiscal reform puts him beyond the establishments deficits don't matter status quo puts him in a different category) to drop out shows how out of touch win reality they are. Trump killing off the national establishment GOP is a mercy killing.
It blows my mind that one comment from Trump has completely killed Bush.
Thing is, Jeb is a decent guy. In other time, he would've been a decent President. But this is CLEARLY not his time. And him simply saying "I'd love to be President, but right now, it is not the right time" would likely keep him politically relevant for a future run.
Jeb Bush would make a viable Vice Presidential candidate, and maybe help Trump or Cruz win Florida beyond the margin of Democrat vote fraud, which is needed to win the presidency.
And of course, he could also be named Secretary of HHS or the Agriculture Department or some other vitally important Cabinet post, and do some real good work for the federal government.
As long as he turns his organization over to the Republican nominee, either one works for me.
Glenn Howes said...12/30/15, 9:00 AM
Saw Jeb's SuperPAC TV ad here in New Hampshire over the weekend....At this point, team Jeb is spending money cause they have money. Guess they can't just give it back.
This is not Team Jeb. A candidate does not control what ads a Super Pac runs. He can't legally contact them about that. (But he could still make some public comments about the ads - if he had enough awareness of the ads, and the sense to do so.)
One lesson to learn from that is that Super Pac ads are often horrible. Maybe this could be because they are inexperienced, or they just hire someone who claims experience who'll take their money. More professional campaigns are sometimes saved from really bad ads by testing them out in front of small groups, although if someone in charge has good sense they won't come up with a truly bad one in the first place.
Another thing is that they may be more interested in stopping Trump than electing Bush at this point. And it's a truism in politics that ads AGAINST a candidate don't HELP the candidate making them, but only maybe HURT the candidate they are against. With Jeb polling at 3-5%, voters pushed away from Trump, won't, by and large, go to Bush.
"Standing up to the Bully" wherein Jeb quakingly calls out Trump for insulting folks. Perhaps the lamest ad I've seen this year.
They are probably not making the best case against Donald Trump, and Jeb Bush himself doesn't have that kind of feeling for the way people think that he needs. The ad-makers are also probably very cautious in what they put in the ad, leaving themselves with nothing to say
The problem with Trump in campaigning isn't just that he is deliberately setting himself up - OPENLY - as a bully - it's that he seems willing to say anything regardless of its truth value. (and unlike Hillary Clinton, he's not evaluating the long term effects of particular lies. She will tell different lies to different people - very much so - that's why what she says at all her fundraisers are secret, for one thing - but carefully judges the lie's circulation.)
Trump just picks up criticisms otehers have made, fair or unfair, true or false, or comes up with - in Jeb's words or words he repeated - he probably got it from somebody else - what amount to insults.
Trump's observations are not very cogent, and he doesn't like to go beyond what has been said by others, except for what is extremely obvious to him, and usually insulting. He can't even accurately describe what's wrong with Bill Clinton's sexual history. It included some things that went well beyond a "pass" It included a rape or two, if the women are to be believed. It included making anyone who talked out to be liars. It's not just a couple of extramarital affairs, although that's all he semi-admitted to.
Probably drove strong horse voters to Trump if anything.
Bad ads backfire against a candidate, but again, don't necessarily drive them anywhere. This is multi-candidate race.
It's not just that Jeb Bush would love to be President, although there's probably some truth to that. It's that he thought, early in 2015, he might be the only realistic candidate who could save the Republican Party. But he made it a condition of running that he would run an honest campaign, not tilting his position on any issue.
Jeb Bush doesn't understand many things. He doesn't even understand what Donald Trump's characterization of him as "low energy" means. It is not a reference to exercise, or to the ability to meet a lot people. It's vocal energy.
Trump is actually pretty bad in that department himself.
The problem Trump points out actually isn't even "low energy"
What Trump may really be referring to is the ability to understand and respond to or to carry an argument, or just to say something people can follow.
Jeb Bush repeted that comment about "Saturday or Sunday" shows that he says Trump watches. I don't think he's talking about cartoons.
One question: Does Jeb Bush think that political interview or discussion TV shows appear only on weekends? (They may be re-run then, perhaps)
Maybe that's the only time Jeb Bush watches them. Or doesn't watch them. Because I don't think Trump is picking up his characterizations from there.
Jeb was elected Governor in 1998.
He won 2 terms -- good for him.
He shoulda run for Prez in 2008, but his brother was unpopular, dragging the GOP down. Jeb woulda lost.
He shoulda run for Prez in 2012, but he didn't want to run against Romney.
In 2016, he is a bit stale. And his campaign sucks. He has been eclipsed by the Donald. He should bow out, and humbly accept a nice ambassadorship or cabinet position, if the GOP wins.
Jeb's "ties to the [Republican Party] establishment" are precisely why he will not win. Those candidates who stop worrying about Trump and start worrying about University professors with both brains and money who like the message (if not the manner) that Trump conveys. He's got energy and he is not afraid of speaking out. He radiates power and confidence. No other candidate (from either party) does that. Carly comes closest but for some reason she is not hitting the right steps (pure speculation but I would bet $100 that the Party Establishment -- all males regardless of plumbing -- are responsible). Competence, ENERGY, power, ENERGY, new ideas, ENERGY, etc. That is what Trump has and the others do not.
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