Jeb Bush looks increasingly like an also-ran after the latest GOP debate. The former front-runner will soon miss the days when he was the primary target of Donald Trump’s barbs, since Bush’s failure to maintain a high profile in the race means Trump no longer even focuses on him. (Besides to assert that Bush can’t run the country if he can’t even run a campaign.) Bush tried to go mano-a-mano with the other GOP candidate who speaks fluent Spanish, Marco Rubio, and got his cabeza handed to him on a platter. Rubio may have said the final Adios to Jeb!
Bush said afterwards that he wasn’t frustrated with his performance, though he wished he’d gotten better questions. He told CNN post-debate: “I’m not a performer. If they’re looking for an entertainer-in-chief, I’m probably not your guy.” (His remove is visible in that “if they’re.”) But when Bush decided to downplay his surname and use JEB! as his logo, with all the excitement an exclamation point implies, didn’t he tacitly promise he’d be lively? If Bush is going to come back from here, he’ll need to ditch the mismatched exclamation point and start actually exclaiming.
