August 5, 2015

"Is Jeb Bush Turning Into Michael Dukakis?" or "Is Jeb Bush the Mitt Romney of 2016?" Which is right

The knuckle-draggers who think Jebush is too moderate to win their nomination are pushing the theme that Jebush is too weak as a candidate, but they cannot decide which Massachusetts candidate Jebush resembles.

"Is Jeb Bush Turning Into Michael Dukakis?" Politico makes this comparison (horribly unfair to Michael Dukakis, a great guy who had a few bad moments in his campaign), and Jebush has got to be worried about such comparisons in the right-leaning media:

The ease with which Trump has stepped into the passion vacuum in the Republican race points up a bigger problem for Jeb: The only excitement generated by his Bush candidacy so far seems manufactured, much like the exclamation point at the end of his Jeb! logo. Given what a commanding lead he has built in money and organization, it’s striking how Bush’s poll numbers have been flat or declining. In New Hampshire, where Bush’s pragmatic and moderate conservatism was supposed to play well, he had 21 percent support in early June, but only 12 percent in a poll taken July 28. In Iowa, he is closer to the middle of the 17-candidate field than the top.

At an event for Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst last month, Cathy Grawe, who has been active in the Iowa GOP for more than 20 years, says she talked to more than 100 potential voters and that “not one mentioned Jeb Bush. Not good or bad. Not that I’m thinking of voting for him. Nothing. Zero.”

...

What he should be asking himself is: Am I in danger of becoming Michael Dukakis? Already? ... Trump retweeted (though it was later deleted) a remark about Bush’s wife: “#JebBush has to like the Mexican Illegals because of his wife.” Bush didn’t even bother to answer the insult himself and instead had an aide respond ...Bush also failed to deliver a direct response to Hillary Clinton’s mockery of his “right to rise” Super PAC and campaign theme in recent days, again leaving it to a campaign aide to respond.

"Is Jeb Bush the Mitt Romney of 2016?" New York magazine simultaneously makes the unflattering comparison of Jebush to bland rich failure, Romney:

When asked about his support for cutting federal funding to Planned Parenthood at the Southern Baptist Convention event in Nashville, Bush tried to explain why it isn't a so-called "war on women." "You could take dollar for dollar — although I'm not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women's health issues — but if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine organizations, community health organizations, that exist, federally-sponsored community health organizations, to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues," he said. ...But he hasn't figured out how to avoid such gaffes altogether. In the past three months, Bush declared "immigrants are more fertile," said Americans "need to work longer hours," and discussed a Medicare "phase out." Gaffes are a part of every campaign these days (see Clinton's "don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,&quot , but the severity and regularity of Bush's flubs have drawn comparisons to the last GOP presidential nominee.

Is Politico or New York right? Which Massachusetts candidate is Jebush morphing into? How long before someone compares Jebush to John Kerry to complete the trifecta?

August 3, 2015

Fox News Poll: New high for Trump, new low for Clinton

Source: Fox News

...
Trump receives the backing of 26 percent of self-identified Republican primary voters -- up from 18 percent in mid-July and 11 percent a month ago. That’s not only the highest level of support for Trump, but it’s also the highest any GOP candidate has received since the Fox poll began asking the question in December 2013.

Trump’s rise hasn’t hurt former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who garners 15 percent and is the only other Republican in double-digits. He was at 14 percent in mid-July and 15 percent in June.
...
Another example of GOP primary voters increasingly liking what they hear from Trump: 34 percent say they would “definitely” vote for him, which is more than four times what it was two months ago (8 percent).

And the number who would “never” support Trump dropped 26 percentage points: it was 59 percent in June and 33 percent now. Graham (40 percent), Christie (34 percent) and Pataki (34 percent) now have more voters than the Donald saying they would never vote for them.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/03/fox-news-poll-new-high-for-trump-new-low-for-clinton/

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Perry is definitely out of the main debate.

August 3, 2015

With debate looming, Trump has huge lead in new poll

Source: Politico

The identities of the 10 Republicans likely to be on stage at Thursday’s presidential debate are coming into focus after another poll on Monday shows Donald Trump running away from the rest of the field and Rick Perry lagging behind his competitors for the final spot.

A new Monmouth University poll has Trump at 26 percent, easily topping his competitors. The next-closest candidates — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — are at 12 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

...

The Monmouth poll has New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 4 percent, Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 3 percent and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 2 percent. That puts Christie and Kasich in a tie for ninth place in the average, at 3.4 percent — ahead of Perry, who is at 2.8 percent.

It’s not clear whether there will be any new polling between now and Tuesday afternoon, Fox News’ deadline for making the cut. The network won’t comment about its plans, but it seems likely they may release their own poll. Perry, however, would likely need to significantly outperform either Christie or Kasich in any subsequent surveys to steal a place on the stage.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/donald-trump-2016-poll-republican-debate-120932.html

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Looks like Perry is done.