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?

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