Why oh why is this fellow not getting any traction?
Jeb Bush's poll numbers are terrible, and getting worse. His debate performances are lackluster affairs that lie somewhere between Georgelike and sub-Georgelike. His once-dominant fundraising efforts aren't bearing fruit like they once were, which is perhaps related to those aforementioned debate performances and a base of wealthy funders that are beginning to suspect they bet on the wrong horse. And did I mention his poll numbers are terrible,
and getting worse?
Jeb Bush’s 9-percent, fourth-place showing in the University of North Florida poll is his worst showing in any survey of likely Florida Republican voters.
Not even the state Jeb Bush governed is keen on a Jeb Bush presidency, and Florida Republicans are not known for holding their political figures to high standards. These are the people who elected
Rick Scott.
Pay no attention to any of this, says Mike Murphy, otherwise known as the man who runs Jeb Bush's Super PAC, ominously named Right to Rise. It's all going according to plan.
We don't even do national polling, we've done one national poll in our whole history here. We think it's a total waste. [...]
Do go on, Mr. Murphy.
I’ve worked for him for 18 years. I know he builds slowly and gets better and better. You saw in the debates, the second debate was strong, he'll continue to improve, he's doing well on the stump now.
It's getting easier to understand why, despite 9/11, Jeb Bush can go around saying that his brother, President George, "kept us safe." It's because in the Bush family, the first year or so of a job doesn't count. Sure, Jeb Bush started out doing an admittedly terrible job, but just you wait. Give him a few more months and another barrel of coffee and he'll be downright adequate, eventually.
And then there's this, from the man who just got finished saying polls are stupid and don't matter. You know what does matter? Offshore betting sites, where Jeb! is doing just fine!
And if you look at the prediction markets overseas, which are kind of interesting, because that's the one place real money's involved, we constantly rank number one. The smart money's figured this out.
He also opines that Donald Trump is unelectable, or in his words is a "false zombie front-runner." So there you go. Nothing to see here, our guy is doing fine, we haven't even
begun to open the money floodgates that will let Jeb! Bush cruise to a dominant victory over all these other no-chance peons.
Soon. Not now, mind you, but give it a few more debates. Maybe after the first primaries. You know what? Give Jeb another year and a half or so, then he'll be really warmed up and ready to go.