JEB! has a lot of explaining to do

How dare they laugh at me and make fun of my new house!
It's my families land, and I am America's rightful heir to rule!

(Boston Globe) - A HOST OF family-connected reasons could explain Of course, the waterfront home with wraparound porch is an obvious symbol of wealth and privilege. Bush’s rivals would be happy to turn it into as big an albatross as Mitt Romney’s La Jolla mansion, which had an extra spicy renovation ingredient to stir the pot of class warfare: a garage with car elevator.

But for Bush, separating himself from Romney and the crime of being rich is a much less urgent matter than separating himself from George W. Bush and the crime of invading a country on the basis of a lie.

As Senator Rand Paul — one of Bush’s many Republican rivals — put it, Jeb Bush has challenges on two fronts. The first, said Paul in an interview on MSNBC, is “convincing conservatives that he’s conservative.” The second is “the Bush legacy on war.”the often pained look on Jeb Bush’s face. But the “cottage” being built for him in the family compound at Walker’s Point in Kennebunkport, Maine, is the least of them. Read more.

JEB! Bush Lacks Key Presidential Quality

Look, I've gotta tell these wingnuts something they
want to hear. I can't just tell them I'm cutting taxes
on war profiteers and sending their jobs overseas
while I send their children back to the Middle East.
They have probably forgotten all about that Schiavo
woman, and they give me such grief now about my
Common Core cronyism and guest worker
compassion for the Chamber of Commerce.
...Is it my tee time?

(Huffington Post) - The recent interview of Jeb Bush by Megyn Kelly of Fox News (aired May 11, 2015) casts serious doubt upon Mr. Bush's qualification to be president of the United States.

One of the most critical qualities of any president is judgment. Therefore, every candidate seeking this high office must clearly possess sound judgment. This includes the ability to perceive facts correctly and assess situations accurately. This quality is absolutely essential.

Now of course candidates will disagree over issues and will indeed offer differing approaches to solving problems. This is perfectly fine and healthy as reasonable minds can reasonably differ.

But basic judgment is a very different matter. It is not fine for any candidate to be unable to accurately perceive and assess fundamental aspects of a situation. If a person fails to perceive the basic reality of a situation, then this person cannot possibly choose a wise course of action to fit the situation and thus is doomed from the start to make very serious mistakes. Such a shortcoming is simply unacceptable for any candidate seeking an office as critical as the president of the United States.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bush is afflicted with exactly this crucial shortcoming. It was laid bare during his interview in response to questions about religion and the issue of abortion. Mr. Bush responded with an impassioned defense of his faith and a disturbing interpretation of the constitutional protection of the free exercise of religion. Mr. Bush clearly believes that his religion is under a nationwide attack in violation of the constitution. Read more.

JEB! earned millions in juggling act as corporate adviser

(CBS News) - During his transition from Florida governor to likely presidential candidate, Jeb Bush served on the boards of or as an adviser to at least 15 companies and nonprofits, a dizzying array of corporate connections that earned him millions of dollars and occasional headaches. Bush returned to corporate America after leaving the governor's mansion in early 2007, and his industry portfolio expanded steadily until he began shedding ties late last year to prepare a run for president. Executives who worked alongside Bush describe him as an engaged adviser with an eye for detail. Yet experts question how anyone could serve so many boards at once effectively. "Board of directors and advisory boards are in charge of high-level oversight," said law professor Elizabeth Nowicki, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer. "You cannot possibly do that simultaneously for 10 or 15 entities." Read more.

Even after emails, uranium, The Hildabeast still annihilates JEB!

Sorry Jebbie, I'm gonna take a tinkle on your parade,
so open wide and take it like a man.

Everything is still old that's new again in the world of postmodern celebrity politics.  Yes, The Hildabeast is still beating the pants off of the Crown Prince, as the latest Quinnipiac poll shows. She's beating him 47 to 37 percent.   He is still under 40 percent. Only Ted Cruz loses to her by a larger margin, and that is only one point. Rand Paul, who has no chance to win the nomination of a neocon party, does the best against her, losing by only four points.

Ironically, Paul consistently runs the best race against The Hildabeast in polls generally, and actually leads her in some swing state polls. Right wingers and neocons no doubt are wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth over this given Hillary's objectively serious troubles of late.  Of course JEB!'s stunning Freudian slip admission about Iraq, and therefore what a JEB! Bush administration would likely do in the Middle East, and how non-idealogical and independent voters view that is lost on reactionaries and neocons.

What these polls continue to represent is that however toxic Hillary may be, or is likely to become, another Bush is even more toxic. If forced to choice between the two, the American voter will pick the crook who runs a pay to play operation through a fraudulent charity over a wastrel nitwit who will start another war in the Middle East as part of his family legacy therapy.

Call it picking the road least rutted at the Morton's Fork.

Watchdog groups ask Justice Dept to probe Jeb Bush's super PAC

I'm going to buy this election, and nothing will stop me, certainly
not the law!

(Politico) - Watchdog groups want the Justice Department to investigate whether Jeb Bush is improperly coordinating with his Right to Rise super PAC, launched with the goal of giving his campaign an unprecedented financial advantage once he makes it official.

Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, both of which track campaign finance law, sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch alleging that Bush and the PAC “are engaged in a scheme to allow unlimited contributions to be spent directly on behalf of the Bush campaign and thereby violate the candidate contribution limits enacted to prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption.”

Story Continued Below

The groups, concerned about the Federal Election Commission’s limited ability to enforce campaign finance laws, are calling on Lynch to appoint an independent special counsel to investigate potential violations. Read more.

The Bush boys: No sibling rivalry, but maybe something deeper

(Reuters) - When Jeb Bush launched his exploratory campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination earlier this year, he declared “I am my own man.” The former Florida governor said he was very different from both his father, President George H.W. Bush, and his older brother, President George W. Bush — though he made a point of adding, “I love my father and my brother.”

Last week, however, Jeb Bush undermined his declaration of independence when he took four days to answer a question: Would he have invaded Iraq, as did his brother, knowing what we know now? In answering, Bush seemed to mishear the question, since he appeared more focused on what he wanted to tell his family than on what he wanted to tell the American public.

“Yes,” he declared, he would have invaded Iraq based on the intelligence information at the time — and so would have Hillary Clinton. Over the week, it took Bush three more tries, with three different excuses, to clarify this and say “no.” Read more.

Dearest Jebby: A Cautionary Tale of Entitlement

During the reign of King George II Walker Bush, particularly after the Iraq War proved a disaster, the public got wind of the necon surveillance state, and torture revelations got war crimes talk going, the American political left begin to draw the Hitler analogy.  A bad choice. The better historical analogy between the Bush family, and their deluded, if not black comic, sense of entitlement, would be with the European royal houses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, those inbred descendants of Queen Victoria, in particular the Hohenzollerns and Romanovs.

George W. Bush blundered into the Iraq War quite in the same way that Kaiser Willy and Tsar Nicky blundered into World War I, and not as Adolf Hitler created World War II by design.  The neocons around the younger Bush may have provided a rationale for him, and fed his infantile sense of family "honor" and revenge against the man "who tried to kill my daddy," but his idea of war was that of an outsider, and of one who had no realistic conception of what it would be like, just as that generation of make believe warlords ruling the Great Powers of Europe in 1914. It was not that of a hardened, and yet genuinely decorated combat veteran like Hitler who understood war and had specific, if evil, uses for it.

And now we face the next detached Crown Prince struggling to make his case. Make no mistake, the presidency is family therapy for these Bushes, and war is their treatment plan. If Jeb manages to buy or steal the next election, there will be another glorious attempt to "get it right" in the Middle East for the legacy of old Poppy and the family name. One that will end in utter catastrophe, wreck the US military, rip apart American society, and probably destroy the US economy.   It would put an end to the Bushes once and for all, but at a price too great for the rest of the country to pay. Welcome at last to Weimar America, where bundles of worthless dollars would be used as fireplace starter logs.

VP Alert: JEB! having new mansion built for him on family compound in Maine

JEB! and GOP...Open Borders and Closed Minds!

(NY Daily News) - Jeb Bush is going for Maine over Main Street. The all-but-certain 2016 candidate is having a huge house built for him at the Bush family compound at Walker’s Point, in Kennebunkport, Maine, the Boston Globe reported Sunday.

The former Florida governor’s new home will be built on a 1.3-acre site worth at least $1.4 million, the Globe reported, and was ordered built by Bush’s parents, former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush.

The 3,000 square-foot, 4-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom “cottage” is expected to have a gorgeous wraparound porch and feature panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean. The construction of the house, which is expected to be completed in July, is thought to be around $600,000, the Globe reported. Read more.

Could this mean that the Crown Prince might change his residency to Maine later this year, and once he buys the GOP nomination, then pick fellow Floridian Marco Rubio to be his running mate, for an "all Hispanic" (since Jeb is Hispanic) "Guest Worker- Si! Citizenship-No!" ticket? Just could be!

Why JEB! Bush Can't Be Trusted With an Army

(Reason) - According to researchers at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, the war in Iraq that George W. Bush started in 2003 has killed about 200,000 people, mostly civilians, and cost American taxpayers more than $2 trillion. That's a pretty big mistake to admit, so it's not surprising that Bush continues to defend the war.

Nor is it surprising that the former president's brother, Jeb Bush, would be reluctant to criticize the Iraq debacle. But while that reticence is understandable for a brother, it is inexcusable for a presidential candidate, who is seeking a job that would put him in a position to make such disastrous mistakes.

Over the course of four days last week, the former Florida governor took four distinct positions on the Iraq war. On Monday hesaid he would have supported the invasion even if he knew that Saddam Hussein did not have chemical or biological weapons. Read more.

JEB! Assures Us He’d Be Willing to Start a War, Despite [Or Rather Because of] Family History

JEB! 2016...KEEPING THE FAMILY TRADITION ALIVE!

(NYMag) - In a foreign-policy address last week, Jeb Bush declared, "I'm my own man," and even tried to prove it, saying there were unspecified "mistakes made in Iraq, for sure," referring to the war his brother launched. During a radio interview on Wednesday, host Hugh Hewittbrought up a concern about a third Bush presidency that probably hadn't occurred to most people: Would Jeb "be overly cautious about using force for fear of having a 'third Bush war' occur?" Everyone can rest easy, because the answer is no. Read more.

The new GOP neocon strategy on Iraq is to blame Obama (then bomb Iran if they put JEB! in)

We haven't finished the job, Amerika! You're next Bush (and war)
is coming.  Just be patient!

(Washington Post) - After struggling for days with questions about the genesis of the Iraq War, the GOP presidential candidates appear to be coalescing behind a new strategy: Shift the focus to what’s happening in Iraq right now, and blame it all on Obama.

As a number of us have noted, the current line of questioning for Republicans and Hillary Clinton about Iraq — “would you have supported the invasion knowing what we know now?” — is deeply flawed, and risks whitewashing the real history of the run-up to the war. Now, however, it seems possible that this weak line of questioning might actually aid and abet the current GOP strategy for talking about Iraq.

Robert Costa has the goods on the Republican rhetorical shift that’s underway: Read more.

JEB! says climate is changing but human role is 'convoluted'

Like I have said many times, I'll tell these wingnuts anything they
want to hear to get their votes. Let's play some golf.
Is it your drive, Rummy?....On to Tehran! 

(Yahoo News/Reuters) -
Republican Jeb Bush said on Wednesday that the Earth's climate is changing but that scientific research does not clearly show how much of the change is due to humans and how much is from natural causes.

Bush delved into climate politics during a campaign-style house party in New Hampshire at which he took questions from voters on his viewpoints as he considers whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

While President Barack Obama and many scientists believe humans are largely to blame for climate change, Bush said the degree of human responsibility is uncertain. Read more.

JEB! and others learned nothing from Iraq

Iraq?  George (my foreign policy advisor) and I don't want to talk
about Iraq.  That's OLD NEWS.  Let's talk about Iran!.....FORE!

(Chicago Tribune) - JEB! Bush began a talk the other day by addressing the issue of his brother George, noted architect of the Iraq War, and he did not shrink from the challenge. "I can't deny the fact that I love my family," announced Jeb. So if you suspected that the Bush Thanksgivings in Kennebunkport resemble "August: Osage County" — with lots of screaming, sobbing and clawing — you probably feel pretty silly right now.

On a more pertinent question whether the war was a wise idea — the answer is not so clear. Jeb, the former governor of Florida first said that, knowing what we know now, he would have favored the invasion. He then claimed he misunderstood the question. 

Had he known that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, Jeb said later, "I would not have gone into Iraq." But he mainly wants to avoid the whole issue, which he dismisses as "a hypothetical." 

If you're looking for deep, searching reflection on the Iraq War, the 2016 presidential campaign may not be the best place to look. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last year found that 71 percent of Americans and 44 percent of Republicans think the war "wasn't worth it." Read more.

JEB!: I won't enter "witness protection program" over family name

Don't worry Jebbie, I wouldn't let you even if you wanted to.

(CBS News) - The weight of the Bush name fell heavily on Jeb Bush's shoulders last week, as hestumbled over questions about whether he would repeat his brother's decision to invade Iraq.

During a visit to New Hampshire on Wednesday, though, the former Florida governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate embraced his pedigree.

"I'm not gonna be in the witness protection program. I love my mom, I love my dad, I love my brother [my brother so much so that he is my foreign policy advisor]," he said. "What am I supposed to say?"

The event was a business roundtable held just outside Manchester at the Pease International Tradeport, a popular stop for GOP candidates courting New Hampshire voters.

When a man complained during the question-and-answer session that he'd taken a lot of flak for supporting the Bush family, Jeb Bush exclaimed, "Join the club!"

Last week, after a number of shifting responses,Bush eventually declared that he would not have invaded Iraq, knowing what he knows now -- that the country had no weapons of mass destruction.

But he's spurned suggestions that then-President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 created space for the Islamic extremism that thrives in the region today. Read more.

Waffling won’t win JEB! votes in N.H.

This campaigning is just all so sordid.  I am the rightful heir...
Just give me the White House!!

(Boston Herald) - Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush returns to New Hampshire today for the first time since fumbling questions about the Iraq War and making new comments opposing same-sex marriage — and he needs to firm up his message, a leading pollster says.

“I don’t think he can continue to just flounder around,” said Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald pollster R. Kelly Myers. “All you have to do is look at what happened to Mitt Romney when he went from a moderate person to a very kind of radical Republican and how much that hurt him ultimately, that desire to win the primary at the expense of the general election.”

Bush should address the Iraq controversy head-on today, clarify his position on the invasion — and avoid another flip-flop, Myers said. Read more.

The Crown Prince's Many Problems

(The Atlantic) - Jeb Bush had a very bad few days last week. They won’t be the last bad days of this campaign. The Iraq question hasn’t been settled and won’t go away. And other questions as awkward and difficult are waiting to be asked.

Bush’s ability to raise large amounts of money has distracted attention from the inherent fragility of his campaign. But there are many reasons to be skeptical of his ability to secure the Republican nomination, much less win the White House, and the early months of his undeclared campaign have done little to dispel those doubts. Here are six:

1. Tainted Brand

2. Self- Refuting Message

He has expressed concern about the hardening of class lines and the concentration of hereditary advantage among an elite few...But could there possibly be a worse messenger: a man born at the top, who has vaulted into the front rank of the 2016 race thanks—not to any widespread excitement over his candidacy—but to his family’s unrivaled fundraising operation, developed over three generations at the highest levels of national politics?

3. A Candidate Who Can't Attack His Opponent

Barring some rip in the space-time continuum, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee in 2016. She should be an easy target! But the one Republican least able to attack her is Jeb Bush, who shares almost every one of her vulnerabilities...

4. The Wrong Kind of Moderate

On economic issues, he will not have scope for innovation.

5. A Candidate of Ideas Afraid To Discuss Them

The nearer Jeb Bush approaches the presidential race, however, the more cautious his remarks have become. His party mistrusts him on immigration and curriculum, and so he must appease it on everything else. But if Jeb Bush won’t or can’t offer new ideas, what will he offer instead? His record as governor of Florida, more than a decade ago, during the biggest real-estate boom since the 1920s? His not-exactly-rags-to-riches life story? What?

6. Return of the Soap Opera

Barack Obama drew considerable support in 2008 from Democrats weary of the turmoil that seemed always to envelop Bill and Hillary Clinton. “No drama Obama,” was both a personal compliment and a public commitment. Now the Clintons have returned. And the question for Republicans is: Do they want to book-end the Clinton family soap opera with their own Republican psychodrama?

Read more. 

JEB!’s hurdle: There’s little room for error

Do you think I care what Chuck Todd thinks?

(PMSNBC) - The two biggest names in the 2016 presidential race — Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush — both have had rocky rollouts at this early stage. For Hillary, it’s been the questions over her emails and the Clinton Foundation. For Jeb (who is technically not a candidate but is certainly running), it’s been questions about Jim Baker, George W. Bush, and now the Iraq war. But there is one big difference between the two White House hopefuls: Hillary is leading the Democratic race by 40-50 points in the polls and thus has lots of room to make mistakes especially within her party, while Jeb has little margin for error in the wide-open GOP contest. Indeed, our NBC/WSJ poll last week found Bush with the lowest fav/unfav score among conservatives (33%-28%) for all the Republican 2016ers it tested. And look who have been arguably the biggest critics of Bush’s Iraq answers – conservatives like the Washington Examiner’s Byron York and radio talker Laura Ingraham (whose beef with Jeb goes well beyond this week’s news). Getting the benefit out of the doubt is a powerful thing in politics, and right now Hillary is receiving it from her party. Many (though not all) Democrats are giving her a pass for not having a clear position on trade. But Jeb? He’s not getting the same benefit of the doubt from his own party. Read more.

JEB!'s 'Shock and Awe' Didn't Clear the GOP Decks for 2016

I don't have to "shock and awe" anybody (except when I start
bombing Iran). I just have to show up and say, "I'm your
nominee." I'm a Bush after all....Another slice into the trees! 

(Sunshine State News) - When he announced he was exploring a presidential bid at the end of last year and then launched the Right to Rise [aka Rule] PAC to help his 2016 ambitions, the national media dubbed former Gov. Jeb Bush’s, R-Fla., start as a “shock and awe” effort to drive out potential primary rivals.

But even with buzz that Bush could bring in $100 million by the end of May, an unheard of haul for a Republican presidential primary, there are increasing signs that his “shock and awe” effort did not clear the decks, even as the likes of former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who announced last week that he wasn’t running, stayed out of the contest.

Plenty of candidates have entered the Republican primaries regardless of Bush looming over the race and some of them cover important turf.  Read more.

When a Crown Prince becomes a Clown Prince

You hear a lot about the GOP "clown car," both now and in 2012.  Back then it referred to the presumed lightweights (meaning those without access to money) buzzing like gnats around the rightful "serious" candidate, Mitt Romney.  This time, the clown car has a seat in for the next in line nominee, the Crown Prince John Ellis Bush. Now the Clown Prince.

JEB's disastrous week over Iraq, and the frustration of having to capitulate about it after four botched attempts will not prevent him from being the Republican nominee.  By almost every measure, he is still the clear frontrunner in most polls, and of course the media has all but proclaimed him the nominee before he even formally enters the race.

But it reminds American voters in two ways why JEB! should never be president, and won't be president.  First, it remind them about Iraq specifically, and how much of a disaster it turned out to be. More importantly, JEB's incompetent handling of what should have been a simple question about it, one he should have anticipated like no other and had a coherent answer ready, should confirm in the minds of most objective voters that the Bush brand of mediocrity is apparently genetic.  Is JEB! really the "smart Bush?" If he is the smartest one of the bunch, God help them. Would you really want to risk another Bush presidency, even on the "least stupid" one, for the sake of entitled family therapy?  No is the answer. The fate of the nation itself depends on it.

Does JEB! even really want to be US president? (Or does he feel, as a Bush, obliged to run, much like Ted Kennedy in 1979?)

Of course I WANT to be president.  It's my birthright. My entitlement.
I just should not have to RUN for the job!!!!   IT'S MY TURN!!!!
....How do I get a golfball out of the lake guys? Any ideas?  I'm all out.

(The Telegraph) - On November 4, 1979, Senator Ted Kennedy – the remaining heir to the Kennedy political dynasty – was asked a simple question: “Why do you want to be president?”

Kennedy’s rambling response – which included a lot of “ums” and cited America’s “natural resources” – is often used as evidence that Kennedy’s 1980 bid to oust the Democratic nomination from President Jimmy Carter was doomed before it started.

Close Kennedy observers speculate that the inability to field this fundamental and predictable question signalled that – as Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman later put it -- “The guy doesn’t want it."...

This brings us to Jeb Bush, heir to the Bush political dynasty. In an interview that aired on Monday, Fox News host Megyn Kelly asked the former Florida governor if – knowing what we know now – he would have approved the Iraq invasion.

Over the course of the past week Mr Bush has taken five attempts (one of which included the words, “I don’t know” and “mistakes were made”) to finally arrive, on Thursday, at what hopes to be his final answer: “I would not have gone into Iraq.”

So why did Jeb hem and haw so much over a question that couldn’t have surprised him?

The Bushes are famous for family loyalty, and one can understand how fraternal fidelity might make it difficult for him to rebuke his brother’s legacy.

Another hypothesis is that he’s simply stubborn – that he wanted to do things his way and is above pandering for votes. Support for the Iraq war has become deeply unpopular, even among the American Right, but Mr Bush’s initial response was “I would have [invaded], and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody...” Read more.

JEB! taps family money machine for likely 2016 run

(Wall Street Journal) - Former first lady Barbara Bush began adding campaign donors to the family’s Christmas card list five decades ago, building an index-card file of well-heeled contributors who went on to serve as ambassadors, cabinet members and State Department advisers in the two Bush administrations.

Jeb Bush, who opened the door to a presidential campaign five months ago, is now reaping a record-setting haul thanks to a donor network that stretches back to his father’s election to Congress in 1966.

“The Bush family gave us the chance to serve [aka prey],” said donor David D. Aufhauser, who worked as general counsel for the Treasury Department under former President George W. Bush. “So we are loyal.”...

The Wall Street Journal identified 326 donors who hosted fundraisers this year for Mr. Bush’s super PAC, based on invitations and news reports compiled by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan government watchdog.

One in five were either members of the “Team 100,” those who raised at least $100,000 for the Republican National Committee duringGeorge H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign—or “Pioneers” or “Rangers,” who collected at least $100,000 or $200,000 for George W. Bush’s national campaigns.

Nearly a quarter worked in at least one of the Bush White Houses or received a presidential appointment; 24 were tapped by Mr. Bush’s father or brother to serve as ambassadors; 46 worked in Mr. Bush’s administration in Florida or were appointed to advisory boards. A number of donors belong to more than one of these categories.

Mr. Bush’s top allies include 11 billionaires, six former and current owners of professional sports teams and former Vice President Dan Quayle. There is an internationally competitive sailor, a former chairman of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, as well as the author of “Nice Guys Finish Rich: The Secrets of a Super Salesman.” Read more.

Wow, JEB! Is Awful

Ok, there are no "smart Bushes." But we are entitled, and
IT'S MY TURN!... Who thought up the idea of sand traps people?

(New York Times) - Let’s discuss Jeb Bush’s terrible week. I’m really troubled by his awful performances, and I’m generally a person who takes bad news about politicians pretty well. For instance, a friend just sent me a story about the Texas agriculture commissioner’s vow to bring deep-fried foods back to school cafeterias. (“It’s not about French fries; it’s about freedom.”) I would classify this as interesting, yet somehow not a shocking surprise.

But today we’re talking about Jeb Bush. As a presidential hopeful, Bush’s most attractive feature was an aura of competence [i.e. the "smart" Bush]. Extremely boring competence, perhaps. Still, an apparent ability to get through the day without demonstrating truly scary ineptitude.

Then, about a week ago, The Washington Post reported that during a private meeting with rich Manhattan financiers, Bush announced that his most influential adviser on Middle Eastern matters was his brother George. Read more.

JEB!: I don't feel like yesterday's news

JEB! 2016 - About as fresh as three week old french fries!

(Politico) - Not many people running or thinking about running have the leadership experience that he has, Jeb Bush said in an interview with Fox [BNN] News’ Megyn Kelly that aired Monday night.

The former Florida governor offered up what he thinks will be a winning formula for a likely presidential bid.

“Megyn, I haven’t been in Washington over the last — ever,” Bush said, responding to a question about whether the country needs a fresh start and a president not named Clinton or Bush. “I’m not part of Washington. I got to serve as governor of a state — a purple state.” Read more.

JEB! is the "Forty Percent Man!

Lee Majors?  Are you kidding? Now there is a REAL
has been. I am royal, entitled, and I will buy this election!

The Crown Prince may not be Lee Majors in his prime.  He can't leap tall buildings in one bionic bounce, and he has no bionic eye or ear for what the American people really need, but he is raising a heck of a lot more money than six million dollars in his vain quest for the White House, and yet it just won't get him much more than forty percent in any poll. JEB! is the "Forty Percent Man!"

(US News & World Report) - Like many candidates before him, Jeb Bush has rendered early polling in the 2016 presidential race pointless.

"The polls are totally irrelevant," he told Fox News' Megyn Kelly this week. "Everyone needs to take a chill pill on the polls until it gets closer."

But regardless of their ultimate predictive value, a reading of voters' early preferences and impressions still provides a snapshot of the bumpy road the son of one former president and the brother of another faces to the Republican nomination.

And unless the metric is presumed money being raised, it's difficult to name Bush the front-runner.

About half of the GOP seems firmly skeptical of him, either because he's part of a political dynasty or because he's breaking with conservative orthodoxy on immigration reform and education standards.

is favorability rating is in negative territory among first-in-the-nation Iowa caucusgoers, a number that had to factor in to his decision to skip the August straw poll in the Hawkeye State for another event. (A Bush aide denies this.) In New Hampshire, where Republicans hue more moderate, he's in better shape, but faces fierce competition in a primary he likely has to win.

Here's the scouting report on where Bush stands less than nine months before voting begins – and it's rife with red flags. Read more.

JEB! Inadvertently Says He's Running for President (as well as invading Iraq)

I tell you I'm ready to lead!  As ready as any Bush can be!

Invading Iran is not the only thing the Crown Prince  can't give a straight answer about.

(National Journal) -  Jeb Bush said Wednesday he is running for president. Wait, no. He said he is running for president if he is running for president.

When a reporter asked him how he would be different from his brother, Bush responded with a slight slip up. NBC News caught the moment: "I'm running for president in 2016, and the focus is gonna be about how we—if I run—how do you create high, sustained economic growth, where more people have a chance at earned success? And I will apply my record and the ideas that are relevant going forward to all of this. Of course I have differences with every president, previous president."

If you've been following the burgeoning 2016 presidential race over the past several months, it's understandable if you've assumed that Bush is in the race. Officially, he's not. In the full remarks from his comments to reporters Wednesday, he makes that plenty clear. Bush said he'll make up his mind "soon, for sure" about a run after listening to people. He said that he's been "encouraged" from what he's heard. Read more.