Had Enough Schadenfreude? Bye Bye Jeb.

I don't have any animus for Jeb or his family but I don't have any philosophical, intellectual, emotional or other connection with the guy either. Despite the ongoing character assassinations, the Bushes are incredibly decent people. But who is Jeb and what does he stand for?

Whereas I have some sympathy for Jeb and his relatives I have zero compassion for the consultants and donors who burned $150 MILLION! for this fiasco of a campaign. Actually, I have contempt for Jeb's inner circle. A country desperately cries out for help and they give us a candidate who doesn't want to discuss issues and viciously attacks candidates who do. The petty attacks on Marco Rubio and his possibly imprudent boat purchase leveled by the proxies of a silver spoon baby would set the tone for Jeb's misguided campaign.

Politico had a revealing article on this belly flop but being a crypto-leftist data rag, they had to take a swipe at the Donald.

The entire premise of Bush’s candidacy now looks like a misread of an electorate that wasn’t amenable to establishment candidates—and a misunderstanding of a modern media environment ill-suited to a policy wonk who speaks in paragraphs, not punchy sound bites. He couldn’t sell experience to an electorate that wanted emotion.

I submit that Trump has succeeded not by talking in sound bites but by talking about matters no one else wanted to discuss. But I digress.

In 2009 Rush Limbaugh had appeared at CPAC and spoke for about an hour without a note or teleprompter or any other assistance and brought the house down. Standing ovation after standing ovation until no one sat down. At about the same time Jeb Bush was buying pizzas for GOP focus groups so he could listen to what was on Republicans' minds. An off-air listener on Limbaugh's show mentioned Jeb and voiced frustration at just how out of touch Jeb happened to be. The listener mentioned Sarah Palin's stump speeches and Limbaugh's CPAC performance and Jeb finds the discontent so mysterious that he has to perform a market analysis in an effort to understand it.

Jeb spent a lot of time on the sidelines. I don't remember him giving so much as a shout out to the Tea Party. If he wasn't ready to run against Obama in 2012, he could have run against--and probably defeated--Bill Nelson in an effort to help his party win back the Senate. Not Jeb. I don't recall his denouncing Lois Lerner, Jonathan Gruber, the Obama Administration's myriad abuses of power, budget excesses or anything else. Nope. Just stay in that holding pattern till we can roll you out on the campaign trail.

"What is it about Americans and their obsession with lists?" (If not a verbatim quote, pretty close to it) the British import, Dr. O'Hara, asks aloud in an episode of "Nurse Jackie." I don't know but we do like them. The biggest NBA draft flops, the biggest box office failures, the worst automobiles in history. Someday, some waste of a time portal might offer a slide show of the grossest failing political campaigns in US History. For now, Jeb Bush 2016 is in a class by itself.
 

Jeb Spent $2,884 Per Vote In Iowa

This blog has shamelessly piled on the heap of ridicule leveled at Jeb Bush, Right To Rise USA, and Mike Murphy. We asked if Jeb would top Bloomberg's $174/vote. Fox News just calculated that Jeb spent $2,884 Per Vote In Iowa.

This is an epic failure. New Coke, Ishtar, the Edsel, the Spruce Goose...Jeb Bush will rival the greatest flops in history. When they construct the Gross Failure Hall of Fame, Jeb Bush and Mike Murphy will be the charter inductees.  Jeb's legacy might be a Trivial Pursuit question. "What GOP presidential candidate spent a record amount to capture sixth place in the Iowa Caucus in 2016?"

In fairness Bush did walk away with 1 delegate. But who knew that nine figures AND a Bob Dole endorsement would not secure a nomination? Strange days have found us.

If We Tried To Fail, Could We Do Worse Than Mike Murphy and Right To Rise USA?

I hold no delusions that I could coach a football team better than the worst coach in the NFL. I don't think I could run an airline either. I sometimes think I could run a network or movie studio better than a lot of executives but I am certain that there is more there than meets the eye. But I have no doubt that I--and really, just about everyone I have ever met--could not possibly do a worse job than the people who run Jeb Bush's campaign or his super PAC, Right to Rise USA.

For weeks we have been subjected to TV ads that bash Rubio, Kasich and Christie. I would throw my hands up and ask who is burning dollars like autumn leaves? Who would spend money to trash the third, fifth and on a good day, the seventh place contender while leaving the top two candidates pretty much untouched? The answer is Right to Rise USA.

Finally, a major player has looked at what is going on. Here is Stephen Hayes of "The Weekly Standard."

Bush's campaign and the Right to Rise super PAC supporting him have churned through more than half of the $100 million-plus they raised in an effort to boost his candidacy. It hasn't worked. When Bush first announced his interest in running, in late December of 2014, he was the prohibitive frontrunner at 18 percent in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. When he formally announced his candidacy in mid-June, he was still the frontrunner, at nearly 11 percent in the RCP average. In the Fox News national poll released Friday, Bush was at 4 percent.

$50 Million and you take your guy from 11 % to 4 %? Seriously, if you disliked Jeb and wanted to tank his campaign, could you do more damage than Mike Murphy? Even if you tried really hard could you bring the front runner to 4%, well out of top tier contention? Truthfully, if his last name was not Bush, Rand Paul would still be sitting at the grownup table.

It gets worse. Hayes again:

Skeptical of national horserace polls? Fair enough. In Iowa, Bush sits in fifth place at 4.5 percent after more than $10 million in pro-Bush ad spending. In New Hampshire, where he's focused his efforts, and the campaign and its allies have spent some $25 million, he's in sixth place at 8.2 percent. His national favorability/unfavorability rating, per a HuffPost pollster aggregation, is 32/54 – the worst in the Republican field. (Donald Trump is 40/54).

Right to Rise has focused on stopping Rubio, Kasich and Christie. They seem to have some success at slowing down Rubio's momentum. But why these three? It is the overthinking school of political strategy. "Establishment Lane" is the latest polysci babble that is muttered by loser consultants.

In 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent $102 million of his own money to win reelection by a thin margin. At 585,466 votes, Bloomberg spent a staggering $174/vote. As absurd as those numbers are, Right to Rise and Jeb Bush will exceed them and it remains to be seen if he will receive as many votes nationwide. Bloomberg bought an election. Jeb Bush will be lucky to buy a fifth place finish.

PROPPING UP KASICH'S NAME RECOGNITION

MAKING SURE RUBIO DOESN"T GET THE BRONZE MEDAL

MORE MARCO BASHING

GO JEB GO

AT LEAST THEY ATTACK THE FRONT RUNNERS

THEY EVEN TARGET THE LEADER...WITH NO RESULTS


Give any of us nine figures to play with and I think we could get Joey Buttafucco better numbers than Mike Murphy got for Jeb.

Team Players

The requisite ego of men and women who seek the presidency is such that they sometimes think lower office is beneath them. I get that. These are alpha dogs. They don't want to be ordered around by a blogger with a megaphone. Got it.

And I will reiterate that I am not even a Republican, I just vote that way by default given the sorry excuses for human beings who now hold office for the other party. And I have a thing about career politicians having an impact on this country our forefathers never envisioned. With those disclaimers out of the way, something can be said for people who have paid their dues to their party.

If Michelle Bachmann (or Sarah Palin for that matter) are finished with politics, good for them. Two ladies who paid their dues. However, if Bachmann seeks higher office later I will hold it against her that she did not challenge the vulnerable Al Franken. Palin's situation is different. The GOP seems to have a good chance of defeating Mark Begich--a man who came to power only because of his family name and bogus charges leveled against Ted Stevens. But if Begich hangs on, that is a mark against future candidate Palin.

I am disturbed by the Ben Carson for president movement. If Donald Trump was in the mix, I would say the same things about him.  Yes, we should recruit from diverse backgrounds. In the old days, almost every public official had a real job (as opposed to a community organizer or an office hopper in gerrymandered districts.) LBJ was a teacher. Hubert Humphrey was a pharmacist. Mayor Daley worked in the stockyards. Ronald Reagan was an actor. Job experience was the norm.

That is not to say one should entirely skip public office. Dwight Eisenhower would not win a primary today. Times change.

There are three basic reasons why a candidate should hold public office before seeking the White House:

1. If a candidate has any bone chips in his closet (Herman Cain) they need to be exposed before they hit the Iowa State Fair.

2. No matter how good a campaigner one might be, the presidency is a different game (Rick Perry 2012.)

3. The challenges of the presidency are daunting and ideally one would hold public office before taking on the big job. I agree with Ann Coulter that a governor or even a big city mayor brings executive experience that legislators do not attain. I am slow to disqualify all Senators and Congressmen but I understand the executive bias.

If Ben Carson seeks the presidency in 2016, I cannot support him. In part because he is not ready for prime time and would get tripped up on the campaign trail and in part because he is not a team player. If he was serious about spreading his values into the public arena he would not sit out Congressional and Gubernatorial races in his home state of Maryland. He might also consider seeking the Senate in 2016.

Donald Trump is a publicity seeker at heart and I doubt if he would run for president if he had other means of staying in the spotlight. Should he seek the big job after backing off from multiple New York Senate and Governor's races, I for one will not support him. Not a team player.

So Mitt Romney is running again in 2016? Ho hum. If Mitt challenged Ed Markey for his Senate seat I would see him in another light. If he defeated Markey, even better. Unfortunately, Mitt is not a team player.

I am no Jeb Bush fan but had he defeated--or even just challenged-- Bill Nelson in 2012,  I would have some respect for the man. Jeb Bush, not a team player.

Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico who was both popular and controversial, might have won a Senate seat in 2012. Instead, he became the Libertarian candidate. Why? I have no idea. He could have challenged again in 2014. Nope. Not just a non-team player, also a series of bad career moves.

I doubt if Pataki or Giuliani get back into the mix but if they do, I would say the same thing about them. Herman Cain is a resident of Georgia and the GOP has a lock on most state offices so maybe we can give him a pass. Gingrich is a resident of Virginia. Santorum is, oh who cares about Santorum?

If the GOP does not take the Senate in 2014, we might take a long look at the prima donnas who sat on the sidelines, sometimes for multiple elections. In 2016, the GOP needs to support a team player