Was the Third Debate Bush's Last Stand?

Papa Bush is probably not impressed... it has been a lackluster couple of months for Jeb Bush, and it's not getting any better:

Jeb Bush deserves headlines from Wednesday's anarchic GOP debate, but not the good kind. Something like: "Is Bush Finished?"

The evening in Boulder, Colorado, will be remembered for interruptions, non sequiturs, mangled facts and general chaos. But the most significant impact may have been to dramatically lengthen the odds that Bush, the dutiful scion, will follow his father and brother into the White House.

and it continues....

Bush had spent the past week trying to assure donors and supporters that he has the drive, desire and political skill to fight with no holds barred for the nomination. Wednesday's performance was woefully unconvincing.

www.realclearpolitics.com...

I think Jeb is done. I'd say he will probably try and stick around through to Iowa and New Hampshire but following that I think he'll end his campaign. What a disaster... he jumped in with $100 million already in the piggy bank, he had his family's strong political connections... probably had the best advisers any campaign would want, he had Florida... a very important Republican State, a must in the 2016 elections... and yet he's only gone down hill. In Jeb's defense though... today's voters, and the political environment, has drastically changed from what his brother or his father faced. Still, he came in with so much, and now he's polling 6.6%... 5th in the field behind... *gasp* Cruz??

When his campaign is done, he will have to answer alot of questions to alot of people.

Let's bloody hope so.

The man is a class A buffoon, and his organization is dangerous and malevolent.

a reply to: angus1745

I agree, he had some major advantages coming in.

And leaves with nothing.

He lacks the X factor that other candidates have.

Todays voters just want something different.

-Loud mouth business man

-Smart black docter

-Mexican

-Women

We have already had two of what Jeb has to offer.

Jeb is the quintessential RINO and the Republican base is basically a barbarian horde, so this isn't suprising.

He doesn't seem very presidential and I certainly wouldn't bet on him pulling it out.

On the other hand, around this point in 2011 Perry, Cain and Gingrich were all doing well in the polls and they all flamed out.

So there's no guarantee about how the race will go.

originally posted by: CB328
Jeb is the quintessential RINO and the Republican base is basically a barbarian horde, so this isn't suprising.

You are right. The base is sick of the establishment who refuses to do anything but enrich themselves and their special interests. They have become Democrats.

I had a post today about how Rubio is the new establishment darling... if you notice, his primary contributors are the same as Hillary's.

I kind of like Jeb. At least he has a government record. I find it hard to believe Trump is leading ahead of him so well. What's so great abou Trump? His hair? Yep that's it. And his snobbish rhetoric.

I also kind of like Carson I'd vote for him over Trump in a heartbeat. Trump can go back to his show, if he still has one after all his remarks.

a reply to: jonnywhite
Long article but these are the personal stories and the reasons

Seeking America’s ‘lost’ greatness and finding Trump most appealing

www.washingtonpost.com... a1_story.html

The way Joe McCoy sees it, the last time America was great was when Ronald Reagan was president, when people played by the rules. No, it was in the ’70s, Holly Martin says, when you could depend on Americans to work hard. No, to find true American greatness, Steve Trivett contends, you need to go back to before the Vietnam War, “when you could still own a home and have a good job even if you didn’t have a college education.”

Even if they don’t have “Make America Great Again” campaign caps, Donald Trump’s supporters easily recite the signature slogan of the real estate developer’s insurgent presidential bid. And even if they don’t agree on exactly why the country lost its way, they do accept — give or take a few degrees of hyperbole — Trump’s contention that the United States has become, as he has put it, “an economic wasteland” that is “committing cultural suicide.”

The premise behind “Make America Great Again” is that the country is no longer great. It can be great again, and the campaign has a certain can-do billionaire in mind as the guy to make that happen, but at the moment, the leading contender for the nomination of the party that regularly touts the notion of American exceptionalism is arguing that the country ain’t what it used to be.

Interviews with Trump supporters across the country find a profusion of perspectives on how and when America lost its mojo; what bonds them is a sense of frustration so abiding that they’re willing to take a chance on a man they readily admit is anything but presidential, at least the way the term has historically been defined.

Many Trump supporters interpret their candidate’s rough rhetoric not as anger, but as determination.

Martin has come to think that he has a rare ability to get things done. She was a Republican all her life — until her party regained the majority in Congress in 2014 and proceeded, she said, “to do nothing. They did nothing on Obamacare, nothing on cutting spending, nothing on restoring honesty. They hate us, so now I’m done with Republicans. Trump is not one of them. He doesn’t hate us. He really believes we can make America great again, and I’m not an optimistic person, but I think he can, because he’s got a built-in ability to use the media, just like Obama.”

For some supporters, especially those in the second half of life, Trump’s slogan is a tribute to a simpler time. “He could have said, ‘Make America what it was before’ and I would have voted for him,”

Cimbal, a loyal Republican, wants people to think about how to curb illegal immigration and protect Second Amendment gun ownership rights, but she’s mainly drawn to Trump because she thinks his plain talk can get things done. Her goal is to restore a time “when there wasn’t as much animosity toward each other, when everything wasn’t about race and people just got along.”

Nope.

When you have his friends and his money, second, third, fourth, and fifth chances grow on trees.

Remember another establishment candidate. John Kerry.

He was written off at this point in '03. Being told to drop out lest he embarrass himself. Still being written off in January of '04 .

He easily won the nomination.

Didn't win the general. But he was running against a Bush.