Jeb Bush’s chief operating officer has left the marketing campaign, marking the highest-level departure from the previous Florida governor’s team. But to buy time, Team Bush has to do SOMETHING to calm the campaign’s most ardent supporters – whether it’s new campaign staff or Bush admitting to strategic mistakes.
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Bush’s trip to Geno’s was something of a homecoming. “After Jeb criticized Rubio’s attendance record, and Rubio broke his legs, you could just see it in his eyes”, said the billionaire super PAC contributor, who did not want to be named because he never is named. It didn’t hurt that Bush picked up the endorsement of Former New Hampshire Senator and Governor, Judd Gregg, a longtime Bush family ally.
Bush tried to take on Rubio, his one-time protégé, for a shoddy Senate attendance record and suggested he should resign. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who introduced Bush in Portsmouth. The debate last night was a good example of it. There wasn’t any substantive questions, where people talk about the questions around their kitchen table. It’s not about performance. In contrast to a few of his competitors, who seized the opportunity of a chaoticdebate to interrupt and drive home their points by talking over others, Bush simply is not one to play to the cameras, they said. He said his immediate strategy is to spend a lot of time in New Hampshire. And he also denied, strenuously, that his campaign is failing.
“It’s not on life support”, he said. Bush asked why Rubio had missed so many Senate votes. While he still plans to hold town hall-style meetings, he’ll also add more informal events to his schedule, such as stops at VFW halls for beer and lengthy discussions with veterans. Bush fielded questions on topics ranging from entitlements to solar energy.
Welcome to Ballot Boxing, WORLD’s weekly roundup of political news and views from the presidential campaign trail.
Jeb Bush, for insisting that everything is fine when everything is most definitely not fine, you had the worst week in Washington.
Trump, who still holds an edge in national polls in his quest for the GOP presidential nomination, spoke Thursday about the scuffle between two of his challengers – Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio – while rallying supporters in Nevada. Oh, yeah, you should run.
ROGERS: Bush’s trip to Geno’s was something of a homecoming.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Yes, you did. A picture of Barbara Bush even hangs behind the counter. “Yep, there may be slicker candidates and there may be smoother debaters, but I know what I believe in”. He did little in the debate to help himself reverse his sagging candidacy, experts said.
“They’re not walking away”, he said, noting there are eight more debates.
Bush’s own comments Thursday about lacking a “big personality” point to part of the difficulty.
ROGERS: Bush then faced the press.
Supporter Judy Scott of Newfields, N.H., watched the debate and said criticism of Bush’s performance may be overblown. “We have the most money”.
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“People are sitting on it and watching to see how it evolves”, said Carlos Gonzalez, a New Hampshire state representative and Bush backer.
