JEB's South Carolina firewall (has yet) failed to take shape

Perhaps Friedrich Hollander, Sammy Lerner, and Marlene Dietrich put the ending to this story best: "Falling in love again, never wanted to. What am I to do? Can't help it."

(Politico) - Twice before, South Carolina has delivered for the Bush family. In 1988, it famously served as George H.W. Bush’s firewall after he finished third in Iowa. Twelve years later, it served the same role for George W. Bush after John McCain’s New Hampshire victory.

But as Jeb Bush seeks to become the third in his family to win here, he’s finding the state almost unrecognizable. The electorate in the first primary state in the South is more conservative than before — and the former Florida governor is perceived as a moderate. Much of the old Bush team has defected to other candidates. And the presence of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is eating into Bush’s natural base of support.

While Jeb Bush — who made his first trip to the state last week as an all-but-announced candidate for the presidency — is undeniably the beneficiary of the goodwill generated by past family campaigns, more than two dozen interviews on the ground show that the reservoir of support is neither as wide nor as deep as he might have hoped. Read more.