Overall, this Seema Mehta article in the Los Angeles Times is devastating for Jeb Bush. It’s just not the kind of news coverage he needs, at all. The whole piece is unhelpful, but the following excerpt is particularly bad.
On Tuesday, he delivered a foreign policy speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, arguing that the withdrawal of troops from Iraq led to the rise of Islamic State. The next day he rolled out endorsements from Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah at a rally in Reno, followed by a town hall meeting in North Las Vegas.
On Thursday, Bush spoke about national security at a forum in Davenport, Iowa, and then at a county GOP fundraiser in Ankeny. On Friday, wearing cowboy boots embroidered with his name, Bush hit the Iowa State Fair. He ditched his Paleo diet and nibbled on a deep-fried Snickers bar, sipped mid-morning beer and flipped pork chops at a grill.
Bush has spent much of his time on the campaign trail trying to establish an identity separate from his father and brother. But his brother’s shadow — and the unpopular Iraq war he launched in 2003 — looms everywhere.
Jeb does need to craft a separate identity from his brother, but I don’t think “sipping” beer and “nibbling” on deep-fried food is moving in the correct direction. The embroidered cowboy boots don’t help, either. He just comes off as an emasculated version of the brush-clearing Crawford rancher.
And he isn’t doing himself any favors by talking about how the president should have spent more money and lives in Iraq. He comes off like a less confident, less cocky version of his brother, and I don’t think that appeals to anyone, even the girls who like bad boys.
As for trotting out endorsements from people like Dean Heller and Orrin Hatch, I hope he realizes that people hate Congress, and the Republican base hates in particular squishes like Heller and Hatch.
Jeb’s PAC is ready to drop a few money bombs, and maybe that will help:
The Right to Rise USA Super PAC, which can accept unlimited donations, will buy $10 million of ad time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Yes, America, you all have the right to get out of bed in the morning– exercise your right to rise!
Everything seems at least a little tone-deaf with Team Bush right now.
He’s still set up to win in the same way that McCain and Romney won before him, as the only right-wing candidate who is remotely acceptable to the American people. But McCain and Romney both lost badly. And that’s a lesson the base has learned better than the Establishment.
