But while candidates, like Donald Trump and Ben Carson, who have never held political office, now lead the polls, Bush and his supporters are fretting over another politician in the race; his former protege, Marco Rubio.
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Asked to describe Rubio in a word or phrase, the people in the focus group said things like “eloquent”, “passionate”, “young”, “very articulate”, “slick”, “inspirational”, and “fresh”. In the same appearance, Bush announced he had received the endorsement of former Republican senator and one-time presidential nominee Bob Dole.
A few people close to Bush, however, are warning his campaign to back away from attacking on Rubio – as it could damage Bush’s name and may not do any good in either resurrecting his campaign or taking down Rubio, whom many see as the Republican Party’s future. “If you want to have a war…it scares the hell out of me”, she said of the Republican frontrunner, who at 24.8 per cent in the polls, has four times the support Bush has in the national polls. “That’s not how the real world works”.
Many reporters and columnists covering the debate noted that Rubio’s answers on Tuesday were, more often than not, directly lifted from his standard campaign pitch.
MI Attorney General Bill Schuette, Bush’s campaign chairman in the state, recently spoke with Bush on the phone.
“If you’ve heard Rubio’s stump speech before or remember his book in any detail, you have already heard every debate answer he has”, wrote columnist Jeb Lund for Rolling Stone. Candidates have needed to either soar or slump to new lows in the debates to have an immediate impact.
Cruz’s social media score has been improving since the last debate, when he, along with Marco Rubio, emerged as two of the strongest challengers to insurgent front-runners Trump and Ben Carson.
Rubio, 44, who is competing with Bush, 62, for establishment Republican votes, was attacked by Sen.
“I know that Rand is a committed isolationist”, Rubio needled, before offering a deftly handled rebuttal to Paul’s questioning of how spending billions on the USA military was conservative.
“Marco, how is it conservative to add $1 trillion in expenditures to the federal government?”
Rubio dismissed the criticism with a promise to do what it takes to protect US national security, a pledge other candidates embraced, and the crowd roared its approval.
“It’s a deal that was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the backdoor, and totally take advantage of everyone”, Trump said.
His closing statement was also a memorable break from the feisty tenor of the evening, coming right after Rubio and Cruz trumpeted their campaign websites.
TRUMP: On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” he vowed that his proposed deportations of undocumented immigrants would be humane.
“I really don’t”, said Trump.
“That’s the problem with this”.
“We’re becoming a noncompetitive country, that’s the problem”, he said. “And even having this conversation sends a powerful signal – they’re doing high-fives in the Clinton campaign right now”. Carson, ever the pro-lifer, said that he would not.
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Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush (left) says he would kill Adolf Hitler on the day of his birthday on April 20, 1889-if time travel were possible. I’ve been vetted. I’ve been tested.
