Willie Horton Alert: JEB! Bush's New Attack Ad Against Donald Trump Is Going to Backfire

HEY JEBBIE! My name is NOT Dukakis or Gore!

(Slate) - Jeb Bush on Tuesday launched his biggest attack yet on Donald Trump with a new video that paints the current GOP front-runner as an out-of-touch New Yorker who has no place in the Republican Party...

Bush’s gambit, though, comes with significant risks. As Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry, and Scott Walker can all attest, GOP hopefuls who tangle with Trump this campaign cycle rarely get the better of it. If Jeb has any doubts about just how low Trump is willing to go to take him down, he can head on over to Instagram and watch Trump’s brutal “Willie Horton”-style attack ad that went live on Monday and overlays Bush’s “act of love” quote about immigrants who come to the United State illegally on top of mug shots of alleged murderers.

Fooled 'em once, fooled 'em twice, won't fool 'em again

The bigger danger to Bush, though, is also in the long term. The Summer of Trump has been dominated by questions of how long the billionaire’s run atop the polls can last, and whether his GOP campaign will end with a bang or with a whimper. The more important question that looms, though, is whether Trump will launch a third-party bid if or when he’s knocked out of the GOP race. If the former reality star decides to stick around as an independent, he’s likely to hand the general election to the Democratic nominee.

It’s a fool’s errand predicting what Trump will do next week, let alone next summer, but two of the things that the billionaire has been the most consistent on this year are that he doesn’t suffer slights in silence and that he clearly is not a fan of Bush. If Jeb has to tear down The Donald to win the Republican primary, then, he’s more likely to find Trump still standing in his way come the general election. Read more.

JEB! Bush could become the nightmare candidate for GOP donors

(Slate) - Last fall, when Jeb Bush was still mulling a bid for the presidency, Bloomberg Politics reported on what was considered then—and is still considered now—Bush’s greatest advantage as a presidential candidate: His ability to separate wealthy donors from vast sums of money quickly.

“Unlike his competitors,” the thinking went, “Bush could lure donors off the fence in a hurry, without undergoing a hazing trial to test skill and stability.”

That is precisely what happened. Instants after announcing over the winter that he was “seriously considering the possibility of running for president,” Bush and his team set up the Right to Rise PAC and super PAC to serve as cash receptacles for eager GOP establishment donors.

The money rolled in, and by July the super PAC announced that it had met its goal of raising more than $100 million in the first six months of the year.

The popular former governor of Florida, who hadn’t run for office since his 2002 re-election bid, was able to take it to the bank based on his family’s success at winning presidential nominations and his ability to flatter the right crowds at events like the Wall Street JournalCEO Council.

And indeed, he was able to bypass a thorough vetting of his aptitude for a presidential run en route to this fortune.

Whoops.  Read more.

Michelle Malkin: Eric Cantor and Jeb Bush Deserve Each Other, But Republicans Don’t

My sides are still aching after the comical recent announcement by Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush that he had snagged the coveted endorsement of notorious electoral reject Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader kicked to the curb by disgusted voters in Virginia’s 2014 primary election. Newsflash to GOP elites: Getting Cantor’s support is not like landing a prized marlin. It’s like hooking one of those hideous bottom-feeding blobfish named the world’s ugliest creature.

Inside the Beltway, The Washington Post reported, “Cantor remains well-liked and respected in the Virginia business community and among the Republican donor class in the commonwealth.”

But outside the Beltway, the failed Republican revolutionary-turned-Wall Street influence-peddler is a snortle-inducing spectacle on both sides of the political aisle. Read more.

Plutocracy Alert! 33 Iowa business leaders line up behind JEB! Bush

(Des Moines Register) - Some well-known business leaders in Iowa have signed on as public supporters of GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush.

More than 30 have signed a pledge saying they're on Team Bush and committed to promoting Bush's record of tax cuts and economic growth during his eight years as Florida's governor, campaign aides told The Des Moines Register.

Main Street Republicans this cycle have said they're particularly hesitant to lock in behind a candidate — because the menu of GOP contenders is much bigger than ever before; it takes time to familiarize themselves with the personalities and positions of 17 candidates; no single candidate has forecast an ability to hold a clear, sustained lead; and without the Iowa Straw Poll as a visible goal line, Republicans have more time for their whittling-down work. Read more.

As Dynasty’s Son, JEB! Bush Used His Connections Freely

(New York Times) - The stream of requests to the White House from Jeb Bush, a young but well-connected Republican leader in South Florida, ranged from the weighty and urgent to the parochial and mundane.

In 1985, he sent an emotional letter pressing his father, Vice President George Bush, to investigate the detention of Cuban children in Texas, asking, “Shouldn’t there be some compassion?” (The vice president’s reply: “Heartbreaking.”)

In 1989, after his father became president, Mr. Bush offered his recommendation for the next Supreme Court opening. (“Your suggestion will be given thoughtful consideration,” a senior aide responded.)

In 1990, Mr. Bush lobbied the White House to meet with executives of the telecommunications giant Motorola — fostering a relationship that would later aid his own political ambitions. (The chief of staff did meet with Motorola, as did President Bush.)

For the 12 years that his father held national elective office, Mr. Bush used his unique access to the highest reaches of government to seek favors for Republican allies, push his views and burnish his political profile in his home state, a review of presidential library records shows. In the process, Mr. Bush carefully constructed an elaborate and enduring network of relationships in Florida that helped lead to his election as governor in 1998 and, now, to his place as a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Read more.

JEB! Bush, Family Ties and a Museum That Never Materialized

(New York Times) - When Jeb Bush set out to build a political base of his own in South Florida three decades ago, he did not lack for new friends. He was a magnet for a long line of Republicans eager to be associated with him and his powerful family, including a Cuban immigrant and former corrections officer named Tony Campos.

Mr. Campos ended up working as an advance man for Mr. Bush’s father, George, when he ran for president in 1988 and on the inauguration after he won. Jeb Bush was impressed enough that he recommended Mr. Campos for a job in the new administration, describing him as someone who “has been a loyal, hard-working supporter of George Bush and has the skills to serve.” And for years afterward, he continued to cultivate a friendship with the Bush family, especially its matriarch, Dorothy Walker Bush, who spent winters in Florida.

But Mr. Campos’s interests in the family were not entirely innocent. Ultimately he would try to exploit those relationships, entangling Jeb Bush, by then the governor of Florida, in a case of misplaced trust and the theft of public funds. Mr. Bush was never connected to any wrongdoing, though now, as he seeks to become the third Bush to occupy the White House, his involvement in the little-known episode is a cautionary tale about the downside of the vast network of friends and supporters that has been an essential part of the family’s decades of political success. Read more.

PolitiFact Florida: On Jeb Bush and emails, there's more to the story

Look, IT'S MY TURN! Shut up, move on, and swear me in!

(Tampa Bay Times/Herald) - As the other presidential candidate with a private email server, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is trying to contrast himself with Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"My email address, write it down, and send me your thoughts, jeb@jeb.org," he's shown telling a crowd in an Aug. 27 campaign video. "By the way, I just gave out my email address. It's exactly what I did when I was governor of the state of Florida. I released all my emails; I'm writing an ebook about my emails."

Bush and Clinton have drawn criticism from campaign rivals because they both used private email accounts and servers for their government jobs.

But can Bush claim that he has released all of his emails as a way of drawing a distinction between himself and Clinton? No, in reality, he has done exactly what Clinton has done. Bush says he has turned over and made public all the emails he was required to. That's the same argument Clinton is making. Read more.