After George H.W. Bush lost Iowa in 1988, she recalled an “awful” plane ride to New Hampshire in her 1994 memoir. Most people know it as the unit that supplies the Tomb Guards for the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery and also the Honor Guard Funeral Detail. There also was the time she informed Jeb that he isn’t her favorite son. “I grant you, Bernie’s got a huge following on college campuses”.
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While some loyalists have conceded that the end may be in sight, others such as former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber – one of Jeb Bush’s advisers, are still optimistic of Bush’s chances.
“My dad was this ideal idyllic man who to this day is the greatest man alive”, he said, his voice cracking.
“Jeb is the nicest, wisest, most caring, loyal, disciplined-not by me”, she said, as the laughing crowd cut her off.
If Jeb Bush badly loses in New Hampshire to Marco Rubio, the former Floriday governor “is toast”.
“I know you guys want to go back to doing whatever you were doing before and that campaigns need to be over just like this- Poof”, he told reporters Tuesday night in Hanover. It doesn’t get more personal than mom, and Barbara Bush is a political matriarch who remains largely popular – even when her sons are not.
“So I think it’s the right balance”, he said.
After introducing him as “the next president of the United States”, Barbara Bush took a seat on the front row directly behind him.
She was greeted with a long standing ovation from 300 people crowded into a middle school gymnasium.
“But he’s not a bragger – we don’t allow that – but he’s decent and honest”, she said.
Kasich, who was the highest-polling of the four in New Hampshire in the latest poll aggregationfrom RealClearPolitics, seemed to gesture to the same idea, telling Bloomberg Politics on Wednesday that if he doesn’t do well, he won’t “be dragging around like someband of minstrels”.
“I’m not here to defend his experience, but you recommended him for VP”, Baier said.
At the restaurant, she joked that her husband won’t argue with her. “He may not agree, but he will not argue”.
Establishment figures fear that his staying in campaign could split the moderate vote, leaving Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, two maverick hardliners to dominate the election. She and Poppy are a living link to the old, more moderate Bush family tradition with strong roots in New England.
“People who are for Jeb are for Jeb”, one donor said.
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The Bush campaign is feeling good enough here that it’s already looking ahead to SC. They have held the most meetings with voters of any candidates still seriously in the running, and Lindsey Graham’s 176 campaign stops should probably count toward Bush’s tally since Graham now campaigns for Bush.
