Out like a Lamb: Jeb Bush’s Last Rally in Iowa Weighed Down by Dated Conservatism and Reports of Paid Chair-Fillers

Hey I may not be able to buy the White House this year,
but I will make sure that traitor Marco doesn't either!

(New York Magazine) - The vibe at Jeb Bush’s downtown Des Moines caucus “briefing” Monday afternoon is upbeat and upscale — but it's taking place under the shadow of reports circulating in the right-wing media that the campaign is paying an army of “seat fillers” $25 an hour to make this rally look full. Paid or unpaid, the attendees are more Young Republican than the Baptist-camp-meeting look that prevailed at the Mike Huckabee rally I attended Sunday. 

But Huck and Jeb are roughly in the same place going into Monday night’s caucuses — that is, tied for seventh place with Kasich, Fiorina, and Santorum in the final Des Moines Register/Bloombergpoll.

On the other hand, Huck isn’t going anywhere but out of the race tomorrow, and by most accounts Jeb has enough of an investment in New Hampshire and enough left of his “shock-and-awe” super-pac haul to push on (indeed, he’s heading out to the Granite State right after this event). The deadly threat to him (aside from the plenary threat Donald Trump poses to all Establishment Republicans) in Iowa is a Marco Rubio finish that excites former Jeb backers into switching horses and pressuring the Bush campaign to stop its snippy-gram ads criticizing the Florida senator. Read more.