Jeb! Bush
You know the saying about how you should never wrestle with a pig, because you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it? It's
a safe bet someone has said that to Jeb! Bush in discussing how he should deal with the ascendance of Donald Trump. Bush has been extremely mild in his responses to Trump, and:
Strategists say Bush is smart not to exchange haymakers with Trump, who has a reputation for escalating fights and not backing down. [...]
“What Bush is obviously trying to do is not get into a food fight with Donald Trump but at the same time push back. It’s a careful line to tread. You don’t want to create a sideshow spectacle by taking Trump’s bait,” [Republican consultant Ron Bonjean] added.
As long as he can avoid a divisive fight on Trump's terms, Trump's rise in the polls may be to Bush's benefit:
“It’s taking the oxygen out of the field from the other 15 [candidates], because the only two with name ID are Bush and Trump,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who worked on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Trump’s over-the-top rhetoric has made Bush look more presidential by comparison, strategists say, even as it has prevented lesser-known candidates from grabbing a share of the spotlight.
Of course, the benefit of having Trump drown out the lesser-knowns may be partially undone by Jeb! having to share a debate stage with Trump—true, it shouldn't be hard to look presidential by comparison, but his presence is unlikely to raise the tone of the debate and make the Republican Party look good. And if Bush has to devote much of his debate prep to rehearsing his responses to all the heinous things Trump might say, the lack of prep time on actual issues of importance could hurt him.