Jeb Bush, befuddled, exclamation point (and donor confidence) wilting.
Jeb! Bush put an exclamation point on his performance in Wednesday night's debate, but it wasn't the one he wanted. No, the exclamation points being used to describe Bush's performance are about how bad it was, how thoroughly he got smoked by Marco Rubio, and how pissed his donors are. He even has Chuck Todd and crew describing the debate
as either "the moment that ended his presidential campaign, or the point when his campaign hit rock bottom (because he can't go any lower, right?)."
Bush managed to walk away with less debating time than anyone but Rand Paul (ouch) or less than anyone, even Paul (double ouch), depending how you count. But even that isn't the main problem. This is:
“Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term, and you should be showing up to work,” Bush told Rubio, who stood at the podium just to his left. “The Senate, what is it? Like a French workweek? You get three days when you have to show up?” [...]
“I don’t remember you ever complaining about John McCain’s vote record; the only reason you’re doing it now is because we’re running for the same position and someone has convinced you that it’s going to help you,” Rubio said, as applause rose from the audience. “My campaign is going to be about the future of America; it’s not going to be about attacking anyone else on the stage.”
Bush had no counter-punch ready—did he think Rubio would melt into a puddle of tears and it would be done? And after that, Bush pretty much receded into the background of the debate. His donors are ... unthrilled. Lots of [expletive]s.
“Horrible” is how one Florida-based Bush bundler summed up the night. “He got crushed.” [...]
Bush donors were furious about his debate tactics. “Going after Rubio that way was just a mistake,” said one of Bush’s donors. “No one cares about missed f--king votes in the Senate. Washington cares about that. The media cares about that. And losing candidates care about that. Jeb sounded like he was losing. And Marco made him pay.”
Jeb is losing. He was losing before a bad debate, and even more so after. The guy simply cannot raise his game, and the longer he keeps up his tepid performance, looking like he doesn't really want to be doing this, the more it's obvious that he thought he deserved to be president because his last name is Bush. His big hope for the nomination was to have the money and organization to outlast the first few primaries and grind out a win through a long primary process, but it doesn't sound like his donors are likely to stick around for that if the candidate can't get his own act together.
