JEB! bombs at CPAC, but you wouldn't know that from media reports

A nervous and pacing Crown Prince appeared briefly at CPAC to answer a few softball questions from Sean Hannity. Even in that he was clearly uncomfortable, and flashed the trademark Bush conceit masked as dry humor when he told the listless audience he rightly figured as less than receptive to him that "I'm marking you down as neutral and I want to be your second choice." The one liner bombed like a bad Borscht Belt stand up act.

Even after reports that he bussed in hacks to try and pack the audience, he wound up the fifth choice, in single digits in the CPAC poll, behind Dr. Ben Carson. You would not know any of this if you relied solely on Bush-friendly corporate media for your news. According to CNN, Jeb Bush survives - and thrives - CPAC. Even the New Yorker claimed, Jeb Bush Escapes Unscathed From the Conservative Den.

They seemed determined to do everything they can to make JEB! vs. Hilldog happen.

Worldview: Jeb Bush, Iraq and the truth

(Philadelphia Inquirer) - As ISIS barbarities make headlines, Republican presidential candidates are scrambling to outdo each other's hawkish pronouncements on foreign policy. That makes political sense. With the economy improving, polls show that voters now consider terrorism to be as important a campaign issue for 2016 as economic issues. And Obam's incoherent efforts to degrade ISIS make him an easy target. But when Jeb Bush, in a major foreign policy speech last week, tried to pin the blame of ISIS's rise entirely on Obama it made my blood boil. The mideast collapse that paved the way for the terrorists' rise was precipitated by his brother's misbegotten war in Iraq. And if the GOP hopefuls continue to whitewash George W.'s strategic errors (and Jeb has hired some of the very advisors who made them, such as former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz), then Republicans will surely repeat those errors if they take the White House in 2016. Read more.

Laura Ingraham: Put JEB! and Hillary on same ticket in 2016

(Politico) - Laura Ingraham unloaded on Jeb Bush, the Bush family and Republican elites writ large on Friday morning at CPAC, hours before the former Florida governor is set to take the stage for a question-and-answer session with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“How many of you in the room are skeptical of a Bush, another Bush term?” the conservative commentator asked, prompting cheers and whistles in the audience.

Story Continued Below

Blasting the idea of a Republican coronation of Bush, Ingraham shared her ideas of the ideal conservative candidate, ones that seem to be at odds with the former Florida governor.

“The idea that we should be conducting any type of coronation in the Republican Party today because 50 rich families decide who they think would best represent their interests? No way, José,” she said.

Pull back the curtain, Ingraham urged. Read more. 

JEB! to Booing CPAC Activists: ‘I’m Marking You Down As Neutral’ (Meaning you can't stop money, power, or me)

(National Review) - CPAC activists booed Jeb Bush when Sean Hannity broached the subject of immigration in a Q&A with the former Florida governor, but Bush stood by his perceived conservative heresies on the issue, winning applause as he argued that Americans shouldn’t feel deprived of jobs by incoming immigrants. “For those who made an ‘oo’ sound — is that what it was? — I’m marking you down as neutral and I want to be your second choice,” Bush said, grinning. Asked if he still supports providing drivers licenses and in-state tuition prices to illegal immigrants, Bush initially demurred. When Hannity circled back to those past stances, he stood by the policies — neither of which passed into law when he was in office — and noted that a conservative state legislature and governor signed an in-state tuition bill into Florida law just this year. Bush said that “first and foremost” the federal government should secure the borders, but emphasized that “there is no plan to deport 11 million people.” He argued that immigration hawks who suggest that incoming illegal immigrants will deprive poor Americans of job opportunities implicitly subscribe to a liberal view of the economy as a static thing. “I believe that what we ought to be focused on is growing the economic pie and growing it in a way that looks more like the 80s in America,” he said, referring to America’s four percent economic growth rate in those years. Read more.

Why Walker can beat JEB!

You can bet Scott Walker has a Rove-placed bullseye on him right now.

(PMSNBC) - In the newest national poll, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker leads the Republican presidential pack with 25% — eight points better than Jeb Bush, who runs in third place. In the newest Iowa poll, Walker is also in first with 25%, almost doubling up his nearest rival. And in the most recent New Hampshire poll, Walker is in second place, just three points behind Bush.

In other words: Going strictly by the poll numbers, no one is off to a better start than Scott Walker. And yes, it’s easy to dismiss this — it’s so early. There were polls that showed Herman Cain ahead last time! The establishment candidate always wins in the end! But there’s also a good case to be made that it’s much more than a fleeting blip and that Walker is a genuine contender for the GOP nomination — maybe even (gulp) the favorite.

This is a testament both to Walker’s strengths and to the vulnerabilities of Bush, who is generally regarded as the front-runner and who is quickly establishing himself as the favorite of the party’s donor class. Read more.

JEB! Hasn't Learned Enough From His Brother's Failures

(The Atlantic) - In an interview on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, probable GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush discussed his attitudes about foreign policy, having been asked if he would be "overly cautious about using force for fear of having a 'third Bush war' occur." At first, he gave a perfectly acceptable answer. "I wouldn’t be conflicted by any legacy issues of my family," the former Florida governor said. "Actually, Hugh, I am quite comfortable being George Bush’s son and George Bush’s brother. It’s something that gives me a lot of comfort on a personal level, and it certainly wouldn’t compel me to act one way or the other based on the strategies that we would be implementing and the conditions that our country would be facing."

If any of you were concerned that a Jeb Bush presidency just wouldn't be sufficiently warlike, perhaps he has gained your trust. And for those who worry that he hasn't learned the non-interventionist lessons George W. Bush's tenure suggest? The next portion of Jeb Bush's answer suggests that he has failed to clear that hurdle:

I don’t think there’s anything that relates to what my dad did or what my brother did that would compel me to think one way or the other. I think that history’s a good guide for our country. And the simple fact is you start with the premise that America’s role in the world is a force for good, not for bad things to happen, you’ll have, lessen the likelihood of having to use military force around the world. America’s foreign policy is more successful when we’re clear about who we’re supporting in terms of our allies, and that our enemies fear us a little bitrather than take advantage of us, to create insecurity that then compels the world and the United States to react. I think a better solution is to have a forceful foreign policy where we’re supportive of our friends, where there’s no light between our closest allies, like Israel, like our neighborhood, like NATO. These are the alliances that have kept us safe. And the more that people are assured of that, the more likely it is that we’ll live in a peaceful world.

What's the problem? Read more.

Does the US really want another Bush?

(The Hill) - The 2016 Republican presidential field, we are told, will be made up of adults, as compared to the clown car that was the 2012 field. But as Roger Simon recently noted, “the Republican Party’s clown car has become a clown van.” 

We are certainly very early in the cycle, but it strikes me there are certainly quite a few clowns so far for 2016. We are not even at springtime yet and we have already had the predictable questions about evolution, discussions of no-go zones, the rise of the moronic anti-vaxxers and Rudy Giuliani, who was exempted from the draft six times to avoid going to Vietnam, offering advice on patriotism to the president — God knows what’s next. 

And then, most interestingly, we saw the Washington commentariat and Republican establishment’s favorite adult, Jeb Bush, trek to Chicago to give his adult version of how adults would conduct foreign policy to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

It was kind of interesting that he chose to make his case in Chicago, considered the birthplace of the neo-cons. At any rate, this adult seemed to have his own set of issues making him worthy of a seat in the clown van (credit to Vox’s Zack Beauchamp for gathering much of this information).

The former Florida governor overstated the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s military strength by 10 times, saying the group had 200,000 fighters when CIA estimates have it between 20,000 and 31,500. Bush called Ukraine “the Ukraine,” which implies that it’s a territory and not an independent country. Finally, in his criticism of the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia, Beauchamp notes, “he weirdly talked about how he ‘forced myself to go visit Asia four times a year,’ as if it were a hardship.”

My favorite assessment might be from The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart, who said on Twitter it “would have been smarter for Jeb Bush to wait to give this speech until he had actually developed some distinct ideas.” Read more.

JEB! braces for CPAC: Playing "not to lose" he is eschewing the traditional speech-making opportunity in favor of taking questions from his reliable FOX BNN toady/apologist Sean Hannity

(Politico) - As political events go, it’s hard to find one more ill-suited for Jeb Bush than the Conservative Political Action Conference.

That’s why he’s bringing in supporters — some of them old George W. Bush White House hands — to cheer him on. He’s also looking to exploit CPAC’s speaking format. The former Florida governor is eschewing the traditional speech-making opportunity in favor of taking questions from Fox News host Sean Hannity, calculating that it will give him a better chance of making his case on the contentious issues on which he is most at odds with attendees.

It’s a cautious, tactical approach to the annual confab this week at Maryland’s National Harbor, a strategy carefully chosen for a venue that’s littered with potential land mines for Bush. Read more.

JEB!’s five Iraq war architects make up an eerily familiar roster

(PMSNBC) - Potential 2016 presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush laid out a foreign policy vision last week in which he declared himself his “own man” — a clear attempt to distance himself from the administrations of both his father and his brother, as well as the unpopular Iraq war that continues to dogs the family.

But actions speak louder than words.

Bush recently unveiled the names of supporters and foreign policy advisers, and 19 out of 21 worked in the administrations of George W. Bush or George H.W. Bush. The roster includes several Iraq war architects and those who promoted faulty intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction.

Some of the eyebrow raising picks include:

Paul Wolfowitz – As an advocate and chief architect of the Iraq War, George W. Bush’s deputy secretary of defense argued that the war would be a quick engagement, sectarian violence wouldn’t be an issue, and that the U.S. would be “greeted as liberators.” Wrong!

John Hannah—As deputy national security adviser to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, Hannah passed false information about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction that was used to justify the invasion. He also played a key role in writing a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered in making a case for war to the United Nations, a speech Powell has since said will be a permanent “blot” on his record.

Porter Goss – The former CIA director defended torture techniques, including waterboarding, which he described in 2005 as a “professional interrogation technique.”

Stephen Hadley – George W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser disregarded memos from the CIA and a direct call from its then-director George Tenet urging the administration to not assert that Iraq tried to buy nuclear weapons materials in Africa. It was still included in Bush’s State of the Union speech.

Michael Hayden – As George W. Bush’s National Security Agency director, he played a key role in overseeing an illegal, warrantless eavesdropping program in the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks. Read more.

Wolfowitz: Jeb Bush "is his own man"

If you wanted to prove that you were "your own man" the last thing you would want to do is use one of your brother's most notorious neocon apologists for his disastrous Iraq war to make that argument for you.

(CNN) - On CNN's State of the Union Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz discussed the fight for Iraq a decade later and the role of radical Islam with Gloria Borger. A full interview of the transcript is available.  Read it here.

Meet The Gay Man Running Jeb Bush’s 2016 Presidential Campaign

(newnownext) - Though he hasn’t officially thrown his hat in the ring, former Florida governor Jeb Bush is expected to run for president in 2016.

Not surprising, considering both his dad and his brother had the job.

Less expected is his apparent choice of communications director: Tim Miller, the executive director of America Rising PAC—and an openly gay man.

Miller, 33, signed on as a senior adviser to Bush’s Right to Rise PAC last week, and will likely become communications director if and when Gov. Bush launches his campaign.

Politico describes him as “an aggressive, younger operative who can be expected to inject a pugilistic style into Bush’s high command.” America Rising, a political-action committee  he co-founded, seems to exist exist solely to hound Hillary Clinton

Miller is considered a social-media whiz kid—by GOP standards, anyway—with more than 12,000 followers on Twitter.

He’s not the first homosexual in the GOP’s inner circle, though: Ken Mehlman came out as gay after serving as chairman of the RNC chairman and campaign manager for George W. Bush. Read more.

Walker has opened lead outside error margin over third place JEB! in lastest PPP national poll

In more bad news for the Crown Prince, and nascent evidence that money and connections alone can't automatically seal the deal for even a royal candidate, Scott Walker has a true lead over JEB! in the latest PPP national GOP presidential poll.

The Union Buster from Wisconsin leads the Plutocrats' Choice by a full eight points, 25 percent to 17 percent.   JEB! is not even in second place; that position belongs to Dr. Ben Carson who polls at 18 percent. The only other candidate in double digits is Mike Huckabee at 10 percent, and the rest of the field, including Paul, etc. are in single digits.

Rubio appears poised to end his political career by challenging the Crown Prince, or...

It looks like Marco Rubio is preparing to do the unthinkable, and challenge the Crown Prince and the Bush machine for the 2016 Republican nomination. While it is true there is no way JEB! would pick him to be his running mate, whether he runs or not (since both are from the same state, and JEB! thinks he can be a "Hispanic" nominee), what is Rubio nonetheless thinking? That it's now or never for him? He will find out it's never after daring to cross a Bush. So why do it?  JEB! is certain to lose the general election if he manages to buy the nomination, and Rubio could just run in 2020 and probably win the nomination. But not if he runs now...or is this a trick? Is the Crown Prince going to drop out at some point in the future, knowing he can't win in November anyway, and then endorse his protege Rubio, and dump his PAC in his lap?  Ah the drama!

Hot Air: Rubio privately telling donors: I’m running for president

Salon: Marco Rubio’s massive ’16 risk: Putting all his chips on a wildly uncertain WH run Rubio is apparently telling donors he'll run for president, not Senate. That's risky, for himself -- and the GOP

National Review: How Big Is Marco Rubio’s ‘Jeb Problem’?

Washington Post: Amid talk of Bush, Rubio says he can be the leader who can ‘turn the page on yesterday.’

JEB!’s private investments in fracking dovetail with public advocacy

(Miami Herald) - In the summer of 2013, well before he became an all-but-declared presidential candidate, Jeb Bush spoke to conservatives gathered in New York. He talked up the promise of education reform, immigration and policies to boost America’s economy — standard lecture circuit talk for which the former Florida governor often commanded $40,000 a speech. Still, the part about “a patriotic energy policy” was especially timely, coming amid heated debate over whether Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should lift the state’s moratorium on the controversial oil and natural gas drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing. Fracking.  Read more.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article10906283.html#storylink=cpy

Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and the money trail: Frank Bruni

(oregonlive.com) - Last week began with the comedy extravaganza of the "Saturday Night Live" reunion, but not one of its sketches or jokes was half as funny as four words three days later by Jeb Bush. "I'm my own man," he said. And he kept a straight face somehow. The remark came during a foreign policy speech in Chicago, and he was making clear that he was no slave to the policies and priorities of his father, the 41st president, or his older brother, the 43rd. I'll buy that. But immediately following the speech, donors sought to buy him. It was estimated that at back-to-back fundraisers, he hauled in about $4 million for his Right to Rise PAC  [aka Right to Rule] and for a "super PAC" that supports him. This was on top of another $4 million that he reportedly netted the previous week in one evening alone at the Manhattan home of a private equity bigwig. After Manhattan came the Washington, D.C., area, where he racked up $1 million at two events, according to Politico. An atlas of cities, an avalanche of dough: It's what successful campaigns are made of, and his is expected to raise between $50 million and $100 million over a span of three months. Those dollars come with expectations. Money almost always does. Bush is no more his own man than Hillary Clinton is her own woman. Read more.

Devastating poll news for JEB! from the Lone Star State

The Bush family owns Texas like the Somozas once owned Nicaragua.  Prince George P. was just last fall installed as the Texas Land Commissioner, a post that controls all oil and gas lease largess on state-owned lands, and Common Core contracts for the state education budget. Yet the Crown Prince is getting trounced, yes TROUNCED in the GOP primary race in that state.  In the latest UT/Texas Tribune poll, JEB! manages only a tie with Dr. Ben Carson for third place at 9 percent each.  Ahead of them are Ted Cruz at 20 and Scott Walker at 19. Cruz and Carson will almost certainly be out of the picture as potential nominees by the Texas primary on March 1, but will Walker?

JEB! tiptoes above the falls: He’s got to convince conservatives he’s one of them without alienating everyone else

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) - Jeb Bush has been a putative candidate for the White House for only a few weeks and already he is discovering that presidential politics requires an elegant equipoise. His father and brother discovered this before him, and for both of them the exercise required a sophisticated type of flexibility. This sort of flexibility requires a candidate to be a kind of Nik Wallenda — to walk across the tightrope of Republican politics without falling into the cataract of issues below, or to let flexibility look like what it sometimes is: a lack of conviction. More than anytime in a half-century, this requires great skill. Mr. Bush tiptoed into the 2016 campaign as a Republican moderate, his natural opponents for establishment GOP votes being Mitt Romney and, after the former Massachusetts governor stood down, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. The theory was that Mr. Bush must first defeat Mr. Christie and emerge as the undisputed champion of establishment ideas and voters.

But this is not his father’s Republican Party, nor even his brother’s. Read more.

JEB!'s Brainless Trust

(New York Times) - I had been keeping an open mind on Jeb Bush.I mean, sure, as Florida governor, he helped his brother snatch the 2000 election. And that led to two decade-long botched wars that cost tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. The nation will be dealing for a long time with struggling veterans and the loss of American prestige. Not to mention that W. let Wall Street gamble away the economy, which is only now finally creeping back. But, all that aside, shouldn’t John Ellis Bush have the right to make the case that he is his own man? In his foreign policy speech in Chicago on Wednesday, Jeb was dismissive toward those who want to know where he stands in relation to his father and brother. “In fact,” he said, mockingly, “this is a great, fascinating thing in the political world for some reason.” For some reason? Like the Clintons, the Bushes drag the country through national traumas that spring from their convoluted family dynamic and then disingenuously wonder why we concern ourselves with their family dynamic. Read more.

The Republican (as in Republic) case against JEB! in 2016 is a simple one

It seems safe to say that JEB!, while he may be the 2016 Republican nominee, will never be president. That bit of wishful thinking is premised on a couple of assumptions.  One, that the American voter will not elect another Bush in 2016 because of the records of the last two Bush presidents, particularly the last one, and two, that the American voter is dedicated to preserving a constitutional republican form of government. It is this latter assumption, ironically, that probably is not the one that will doom JEB!  But it should.   It is also an irony that a party going by the name Republican, if it nominates a third member of the same nuclear family within one generation for the presidential office would itself be the greatest threat to the Republic.The case against JEB! is as simple as that.  It does not matter what he believes, how well educated he might be, how "smart" (or "smarter" than his two familial predecessors) he may be, how "compassionate" he may be, or pretend to be, or how much he wants to "serve. " None of that matters.   There are plenty of people, not in his family, who are smarter and more capable of serving as president than the Crown Prince, and whether or not he meets a minimum level of competence for the office is irrelevant.

His advocates are already, and will ramp up their defense of his pretense to the White House with an argument that he should be evaluated on his on merits, and that his father and brother are irrelevant. They are wrong.  What matters, for our constitutional republic, is that his brother and his father were both presidents, and he should not be for that reason alone.  That is all that matters.  

It is also problematic that the wife of a former president will be the opponent of this man whose brother and father have held the office, but if JEB! manages to buy, or somehow obtain the presidential office in 2016 by virtue of familial, oligarchic or plutocratic connections, and with Bush family sycophants Boehner and McConnell in charge of the House and Senate, the United States will become an effective American Principate, from which there is likely no return.

Hillary Clinton and Inevitability: This Time Is Different

(New York Times) - Whenever I mention that Hillary Clinton is an overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination — and would be even if Senator Elizabeth Warren ran — the conversation usually comes back to 2008. “She was supposed to be inevitable last time,” the refrain goes, “and she lost.” I get it. I remember that Mrs. Clinton was “inevitable,” and I see why today’s discussions of Mrs. Clinton’s strength sound familiar. But there is no equivalence between Mrs. Clinton’s strength then and now. She was never inevitable eight years ago. If a candidate has ever been inevitable — for the nomination — it is Mrs. Clinton today. Read more.

JEB! vs. the Hildabeast: Do Bush and Clinton Cancel Out the Negatives?

Tweedle DUMB!

Tweedle dee?

(about.com) - Presidential races are often about contrasts. In 2008, it was a young, new, and "exciting" minority Democrat with against a old, rich, white millionaire Republican who couldn't remember how many houses he owned. In 2004, the contrast between the Massachusetts sail-boating liberal Democrat and the hay-tossing Texas Republican couldn't have been greater. A Hillary Clinton/Jeb Bush 2016 presidential match-up could be a race where the two main candidates actually share most of the same negatives and cancel them out. So, what are some of the negatives that both Hillary and Jeb might share? Read more.

The Hill: Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and the problem with baggage

Another swing state poll, another disaster for JEB!

The Crown Prince remains the "40 percent man," or in this case the "36 percent man."  In the latest Quinnipiac poll in Colorado, JEB! is trounced by the Hildabeast, 44 percent to 36 percent.

While JEB! is certainly within striking distance of being able to muscle and buy the GOP nomination (if you believe the media), general election polls unanimously and relentlessly point to a historic disaster for the Republican Party in 2016 if it allows itself to succumb to Bush Family entitlement a third time.

Inside JEB!'s ‘shock and awe’ launch

(Politico) - In November 2013, Jeb Bush took to the rostrum at New York’s Marriott Marquis for the annual meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, alongside such industry stars as Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein and Blackrock’s Larry Fink. Bush’s remarks, and his chatting afterwards, left many attendees convinced he was preparing to run for president. Word of Bush’s interest ricocheted around the political world.

But Bush, a private citizen for eight years since leaving the Florida governor’s mansion, had no real infrastructure to handle such an endeavor. And as the third member of a storied political family to seek the presidency, just five years after his brother left office with near record-low approval ratings, he had no clear message or answer to the inevitable questions about why he was the right man for 2016. “He just got way out there beyond his capacity to manage and he consciously decided to take his profile down while thinking through how to make a run,” one friend said.

So while even close Bush watchers began to doubt whether he was really serious about running, he and a close-knit group of advisers were following a careful plan aimed at maximizing his chances of winning the nomination, if and when he gave the thumbs-up.
Their strategy was to publicly downplay his interest in the race and avoid media attention, while quietly laying the groundwork for a launch that would catch much of Washington — and many of his potential rivals — flat-footed. Read more.

In a royal hubris shot at Huckabee and the GOP base, JEB! to pick an openly gay man as communications / "dirty tricks" director for possible 2016 presidential run

Bush-Portman 2016

The  Crown Price has vowed to try and buy the White House on his own terms, as his "own man," and expects the Republican Party apparently to acquiesce to this pretense out of homage to his family's legacy and sense of entitlement.

Towelroad and Politico report that JEB! (head of the putative JEB!-Portman 2016 GOP ticket) will pick Tim Miller, who currently serves as the executive director of the America Rising PAC targeting Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, as his top communications aide for the expected JEB! 2016 presidential run. The National Journal also adds that the 33-year old is openly gay and previously worked on John McCain's 2008 presidential bid, and John Huntsman's 2012 campaign. He has also served as a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

This follows (then closeted) Ken Mehlman's tenure as George W. Bush's national campaign director in 2004, a campaign premised on a national anti-gay marriage platform.  Mehlman later served as GOP national chairman of a party recently rocked by the Foley and Schrock gay sex scandals, and the Jeff Gannon male prostitute White House scandal, a period which had witnessed the terms "gay" and "velvet" mafia jocularly applied to the Bush White House coterie, and GOP become a snarky acronym for "Gay Ole Party" among the left. Mehlman later came out as gay in 2010, after serving his term as chairman, and then endorsed gay marriage.

Miller could be expected to mastermind JEB!'s character assassination and dirty tricks operations (under Rove's direction most likely) as what the left would likely label a "self loathing biach-slapper." The National Journal characterizes him as "an opposition research bulldog," and according to the article:

"Miller has quickly become a formidable peddler of oppo research, both through his group and on his Twitter feed. Last June, America Rising published a 112-page e-book essentially outlining the conservative playbook against Hillary Clinton in 2016. America Rising's website is rife with clicky headlines and slick in-house graphics detailing Clinton's peccadilloes, most recently her Clinton Foundation flap. They even sell anti-Clinton merchandise, like this T-shirt that reads, "I wish I was as broke as the Clintons".

Compare that with other potential Republican candidates' attempted attacks on Clinton.                     Sen. Rand Paul's political operation created a fake Pinterest account for Clinton. Pinterest quickly removed the account, saying it violated the company's terms of use. In 2016,               Republicans are going to have to do better to troll Clinton, the presumed Democratic               frontrunner, and Miller has shown he knows just how to do that."

JEB! 2016 Attack Ad: Conservatives Say He's 'Unelectable' In Video Showing Hillary Clinton Award Ceremony

(International Business Times) - A grassroots conservative group is hammering potential 2016 GOP hopeful Jeb Bush as “unelectable” in an attack ad released Thursday. The group, For America, uses C-SPAN footage of the former Florida governor giving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a public service award at the National Constitution Center’s 2013 Liberty Medal Ceremony, and claims the event will be used by Clinton “to blunt any criticism that Bush levels against her.” In the new ad, For America notes that the ceremony was held on Sept. 10, 2013, almost exactly one year after the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, for which Clinton remains under scrutiny by some Republicans. The group suggests Clinton was unfit for the award. In the footage, Bush thanks Clinton and former President Bill Clinton “for your service to our country. We’re united by love of country and public service.” Read more.

JEB! adds to the quotable-Bush malapropism canon

"Three generations of imbeciles are enough" Oliver Wendell Holmes

(Washington Post) - Jeb Bush was mere seconds into his speech Wednesday informing the world that he’s his “own man,” and not his brother or his dad, when he did something reminiscent of both. He flubbed his line. “We definitely no longer inspire fear in our enemies,” the nominal front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination said at the start of his ballyhooed address. “The problem is perhaps best demonstrated by this administration’s approach to Iraq.” Whoa! He’s going there — right into the failure that pretty much destroyed his brother’s presidency? Bush continued reading from his text, as if for the first time. “We’ve had 35 years of experience with Iran,” he went on, then realized his earlier mistake. “Excuse me, Iran. Thirty-five years’ experience with Iran’s rulers.” Dr. Freud would have been amused.

New (NeoCon) World Order: JEB!'s foreign policy vision is sound confident and compliment his brother

The Crown Prince is a champion of both an imperial and aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East, and of the National Security Spy State at home.

(Slate) - If there were questions about whether Jeb Bush is like his brother, he dispelled some of them on Wednesday at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In November 1999, candidate George Bush scored only 25 percent when a Boston television political reporter gave him a pop quiz on world leaders. Jeb Bush, on the other hand, displayed a command of the world on topics from Cuba to ISIS to the relationship between energy and American security. He surpassed his brother at a far earlier period in this cycle. He also surpassed his 2016 rivals Govs. Chris Christie and Scott Walker, who have had trouble clearing the foreign policy hurdle easily. Jeb Bush may or may not have wise opinions, but as David Axelrod writes in his recent book about Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential race, a candidate can convey strength by passing confidently through the tests on the campaign trail. For some voters that may be enough. Bush showing he knows the name of the president of Egypt, can correct his questioner about events in Tunisia, and can name the precise location of the Iraqi prison that once held the current leader of ISIS will be sufficient. More important for the coming Republican primary, Bush was optimistic. “We are a country in its ascendancy," he said. "We just need to start acting like it.” If sustained, confidence mixed with optimism is an attractive combination in a candidate. 

Here’s the bottom line: In foreign policy positions and posture, Jeb Bush is indistinguishable from his father or brother because he’s indistinguishable from the general GOP line. If he is challenging the Republican Party on domestic issues, he’s not doing anything to challenge Republicans on foreign policy. His positions are indistinguishable from all but Sen. Rand Paul in the GOP’s 2016 field. No doubt Paul will be attacking him shortly, as Bush articulated the mainstream Republican view on surveillance. He said the National Security Agency's metadata collection is “a hugely important program.” Read more.

(Despite money and connections) JEB! can be beaten

Is JEB! the "John Connally" of 2016?

(Daily Caller) - On the same Chicago trip where he gave his “I am my own man” foreign policy speech, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was set to raise “north of $4 million.” That’s in one day. Jeb Bush’s team denied reports they planned to raise $100 million in the first quarter to scare other potential candidates out of the 2016 Republican primaries. But there is no denying that they are raising money and snapping up staff at a fevered clip. They seem to have only gathered steam since muscling Mitt Romney out of the presidential race. Now Jeb is setting himself up nicely to be the Republican Party’s inevitable nominee, according to the conventional wisdom. Don’t believe it. Jeb Bush certainly can win, but he’s arguably the weakest Republican frontrunner since Nelson Rockfeller in 1964 — the year Barry Goldwater won the nomination. Read more.