"Yo, bro, would you quit following me around?"
If there's any chance you hadn't already noticed, Jeb Bush's campaign to restore the family name to good presidential stead has gotten off to
a disastrous start. So disastrous that even Republican voters have taken note.
A new Washington Post-ABC poll shows that Bush's eight-point lead among GOP voters from March—when he stood at 21 percent support—has now evaporated.
At this point, the Post-ABC poll finds the Republican field is largely a muddled mass, underscoring just how wide open the race continues to be and foreshadowing likely movement among the candidates as voters get to know them better.
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky top the list at 11 percent each among Republicans and Republican-leaning independent registered voters. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida are at 10 percent each. All others among the 16 candidates tested are in single digits.
Remember, the first GOP debate is just two months away and Fox News
has promised to use an average of the five latest national polls as the criteria for determining which 10 Republican candidates will share the stage in that debate.
Fox is also requiring everyone to have registered to run with the Federal Election Commission—meaning Bush will finally have to come out of the shadowy world of unlimited money he's raising for his super PAC and formally announce his candidacy.
As of right now, nine Republicans have formally announced, while another handful (including Bush and Scott Walker) will likely join the field.