I haven’t paid a lot of attention to Jeb! Bush’s campaign, because it never even occurred to me that he would get anywhere near the nomination. He seems pleasant enough, and I’m sure he has loads of good ideas, but all the exclamation points in the world won’t make him interesting.
I mean, say what you want about Hillary Clinton, but at least she had to do a little work to marry into a political dynasty. Jeb! just sorta showed up for supper. There he is, fork in one hand and knife in the other, napkin tucked into his shirt collar. “Hi, Ma and Pa. Please pass the presidency, Dubya.”
Maybe I’m just too cynical. Check out how Jeb! fired up his supporters after his 4th-place finish in New Hampshire last night. Ashley Parker, NYT:
Tales of Jeb Bush’s demise were overstated.
At least, that was Mr. Bush’s message when he took the stage at his New Hampshire primary party here, speaking for less than 10 minutes and telling his supporters, “This campaign is not dead. We’re going on to South Carolina.”
“Not dead.” Doesn’t really seem like the most inspiring message to send to your supporters, but I guess it could work…
People who know a lot more than I do (which doesn’t really narrow it down) think Jeb! is trying to win through attrition warfare. If he keeps going after Rubio the way he’s been doing, maybe he can claw his way to third place. Then second. Then maybe he’ll be the guy who somehow stops Trump. And then… everybody gets excited about Jeb!, I guess?
I don’t really have an emotional investment in any of the candidates, but if I did, Jeb! would not be the one. I still have to remind myself, every single time I see this guy, that he’s running for president. “Oh yeah. Him. Huh.”
It makes me nauseous that Trump is probably going to be the Republican nominee, and he’ll probably be a worse president than either that old communist or that other old communist. But it’s still not enough to get me to care about Jeb Exclamation Point.
We had a good run, didn’t we? America, I mean.