Jeb Bush Loses What Was Left Of His Legacy

Last October, I wrote this:

“Thoughtful conservatives, if they are to stop Donald Trump and Ben Carson, must — at some point — coalesce around an alternative. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] seems the most likely choice. Unless Jeb Bush destroys him.

Does Bush really want that to be his legacy?”

The answer, apparently, was “YES!” Swap out Ben Carson with [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore], and nothing has changed. And, of course, my warning has come true.

The super-PAC supporting Jeb Bush plans to spend nearly $3 million on a TV ad campaign painting Marco Rubio as “just another Washington politician” who has repeatedly changed his mind on immigration.

Now consider that, according to a HuffPost analysis,

From April 2015 through Jan. 4, 2016, independent groups spent roughly $99.3 million on ads for the 2016 presidential campaign.

Of that total, just $1.71 million was spent to attack or negatively portray Republican front-runner Donald Trump, according to a Huffington Post analysis of the campaign finance data.

That’s right. Jeb Bush’s superPAC is about to spend more money attacking Marco Rubio in the next two weeks than any independent group spent attacking Donald Trump all last year.

What is more, as Erick Erickson observes, they seem to relish the opportunity to take down Rubio:

Seriously, the ad quality in the pro-Bush ads was terrible. Now suddenly they’re running slick ads against Rubio all over the place. The ads are at a higher production value and also being run with what looks like greater frequency.

Jeb Bush had a chance to exit this race at a time when his candidacy might only have been remembered as an embarrassing waste of time.

Now, it’s also a disgrace.

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