JEB! is about to suffer a world class humiliation in South Carolina; "suspension" must follow

The mobs are metaphorically running down the driveway of the compound at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, the Bush family's version of Versailles. And Donald Trump is leading them. When Babs and Poppy look up they don't understand.  "Why do they hate us so? After all we have done for them?"

Yes, the Bushes have done much for the Trump voters who now say they are voting against the entire Bush Republican neoconservative legacy "with their middle finger."  What have the Bushes done for them? They have told them over and over how decent Bushes are, and how compassionate. They have cut taxes many times on job creators.  Have have given them many lovely wars.

And now this is the thanks they get?  JEB! is running in 2016 on those empty fumes of Bush "decency," and he is finally going to sputter to a dead stop in the deserving state of South Carolina on Saturday.

South Carolina is the poetically just place to bury JEB!'s presidential entitlement.  It was here in 2000 that his brother, with a little anonymous help from Karl Rove and Ralph Reed, robbed John McCain of his momentum after he trounced W. in New Hampshire by running push polls asking South Carolina voters if they knew McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock.  This was fair in Bush love and war because McCain had the audacity to include an adopted Bangladeshi  child in his family photos making their way around the campaign.

And JEB! brought out W. yesterday in Charleston to help sink his campaign further.

Consider the level of humiliation coming the Bush family's way in the next few days.  Trump is going around loudly peddling the idea, as a putative Republican presidential candidate, that the last Republican president was a liar, misrepresented evidence to lead the US wrongly into war, implied he could have been impeached for doing so, and was responsible for 911 because he was president when it happened (instead of like ever other Republican blaming Clinton, Gore, and Obama for 911, or anyone but Bush or bin Laden). The only thing Trump hasn't done is outright call W. a war criminal.

Yet Trump will crush JEB! in South Carolina on Saturday, and likely JEB! will also be routed by his traitorous protege Marco Rubio, whose has out neo-conned him at every turn. And if that happens, JEB!'s campaign cannot stand any longer.

How the Bush family’s reinvention is now hurting Jeb Bush

(Washington Post) - Prescott Bush — businessman, banker, father of George H. W. Bush and grandfather to Jeb and George W. Bush — was Connecticut's senior senator for most of the 1950s. When George H. W. Bush first ran for the presidency in 1980, he ran as a Texan despite having been born in Massachusetts and lived in Connecticut. H. W. and his family moved to the Lone Star State after he served in World War II and graduated from Yale. So while George W. Bush was born in New Haven, he grew up mostly in Texas.

There's significance to that. When George H. W. Bush won the presidency in 1988, Connecticut had voted Republican in 8 of the previous 11 presidential contests. It hasn't since. The Bushes, like the Republican Party, moved south and west and became a dominant force in American politics.

When George W. Bush smiled and waved his way onto a stage in South Carolina on Monday night in an effort to bolster Jeb's candidacy, there were a lot of observations that came easily. George W. Bush — in part due to enjoying the freedom of not being the candidate — seemed much more natural at outlining the case for his brother than Jeb has at any point over the last year. He did the best job that he possibly could ensuring wobbly South Carolina voters that electing another Bush would mean electing another Bush — that Jeb would be the same steady hand and affable leader that so many Republicans appreciated from 2001 to 2009. But given Jeb's campaign so far, this is not necessarily an easy sell. Read more.

Donald Trump is continuing to thrash George W. Bush over his handling of 9/11 (and crushing JEB! who is in single digits, and everyone else in latest SC poll)

(Business Insider) - At a press conference on Monday, Donald Trump doubled down on his claims that former President George W. Bush did not keep the country safe because of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I've heard for years he kept the country safe after 9/11," Trump said. "What does that mean, after? What about during 9/11? I was there. I lost a lot of friends that were killed in that building. The worst attack ever in this country, it was during his presidency. ... By the way, after that, we did ok. That's meaning the team scored 19 runs in the first inning, but after that we played well. I don't think so."

Trump is campaigning in South Carolina ahead of the state's primary contest later this week. The real-estate mogul, who is a front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has been touting his opposition to the Iraq War, whichsome say that Trump has misrepresented.

Trump has used his supposed opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq to attack former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), whose brother was the president when the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened. He said at the Republican debate on Saturday night that "the World Trade Center came down during your brother's reign."

He went even further than that at the press conference, implying that the US should not have toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein because he went after terrorists in Iraq.

"Saddam Hussein was a bad guy. But one thing about him, he killed terrorists," Trump said. "Now Iraq is Harvard for terrorism. You want to become a terrorist? You go to Iraq. Saddam Hussein understood, and he killed terrorists."

Trump also said that the US "shouldn't have been" in Iraq and "shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out."

"If the president went to the beach, we would have been better off, believe me," Trump said. Read more.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is the clear front-runner heading into Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary.

A new Public Policy Polling surveyreleased Tuesday found Trump leading in the crucial third-nominating state by a large margin.

According to the poll, 35% of likely Republican voters supported Trump. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tied for second with 18%.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) trailed in fourth with 10%, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson each captured 7% of the support. Read more.

Meet the South Carolina Bush Republicans who are horrified by the Trump coronation

Look, I have these guys' number.  Willie Horton, push polling about McCain's
black baby, lying about WMD and "keeping us safe."
And they call ME a bigot? It ain't"bean bag," Jebbie! (drum trill)

Will they really take Bernie over Trump, or vote for Hillary as some suggested? At least they might allow either to win by not voting! But Big Gulp Mike will rescue them!

(Washington Post) - The town-hall audience listened as Jeb Bush spent the better part of an hour taking shots at Donald Trump — comparing the Republican front-runner to President Obama, comparing him to Vladimir Putin, calling him a bully, saying he denigrates women and the disabled. When it was over, some in attendance were more terrified than ever.

“I’m going to head right back home and get on my hands and knees and pray that Trump isn’t the nominee,” Charlene Knight, 73, said, clutching her husband’s shoulder. “Oh Lord,” she pantomimed, her plume of white hair trembling as she shook her head, “please, anyone but him.”

“I’d take Bernie over Trump,” her husband, Mike Knight, confessed, staring at his shoes.

Outside the auditorium, Erin Mercer, 35, stopped on the way to her car to tell friends how she really felt about Trump: “He’s a misogynist, a bigot, and let’s just say in my middle-aged mom set, a lot of my Republican friends even — I think a lot of them would consider voting for Hillary.”

It’s just days away from the South Carolina primary, and unless all the polling is terribly wrong, Donald Trump, the billionaire political novice and equal-opportunity insult vendor, looks like he’s going to win. And in any other election year if a candidate came in second in Iowa, first in New Hampshire and then won South Carolina, he would be the prohibitive favorite to become the nominee. Read more.

Donald Trump reminds Republicans he can sink their party even if he loses the nomination

(Vox) - Donald Trump commands a first-place lead in the polls and may have the clearest path to the Republican nomination of any candidate in the presidential race.

But his allegiance to the Republican Party remains as brittle as ever, and Trump proved it again on Monday when he resurfaced the idea that he would launch a third-party bid in retaliation to what he regards as unfair treatment by the GOP leadership.

In September 2015, Trump signed a pledge not to launch an independent bid for president if he lost the GOP primary. There was a catch: He added an exception to the pledge that made it invalid if the Republicans mistreated him — "a loophole so enormous it could mean anything Trump wants," as New York magazine's Jonathan Chait pointed out.

Trump affirmed his willingness to exploit that crater-size exception during a town hall in South Carolina on Monday, in which he criticized the GOP for allegedly packing the last Republican debate audience with Trump opponents.

"The RNC better get its act together because, you know, I signed a pledge. The pledge isn’t being honored by the RNC," Trump said, according to ABC News. "I signed a pledge, but it’s a double-edged pledge. As far as I’m concerned, they’re in default on their pledge." Read more.

There Seems No Other Track For the GOP Circus Train to Derail On: The Nominee is Going to Be Marco Rubio (JEB! lite) and Donald Is Going to Run As An Independent

Even before the first vote is cast in South Carolina, the shape of the Republican presidential race has all but settled into its inevitable train wreck finish.

Marco Rubio has to be the last man standing, and the nominee, absent something truly stunning like a Romney convention draft.  JEB! isn't going to sell, and Kasich (who is the only one sufficiently mainstream enough to win a general election) isn't sufficiently neoconservative enough to win a Republican nomination, and the Republican nominee must be a neoconservative unswervingly committed to massive tax cuts on unearned income domestically, and additional unfunded military adventurism abroad. Rubio fills that bill nicely in an package the fat cats find appealing, and one at least superficially "diverse."

Trump is playing for time until he decides when and why to bolt the "corrupt and unfair" Republican Party, and run on his own.  That scenario for Trump seems to be falling into place. First the debates are packed with Bush and Rubio supporters.  Second, once the race dwindles down to two or three candidates, he will no longer be finishing first, as Rubio (mostly likely) starts finishing first in the "winner take all' states.  That will be the point of departure for Trump.

If Hillary survives Sanders and email troubles she will limp to the Democratic nomination. With Trump and Rubio splitting up the anti-Hillary vote, she should win relatively easily in November, and owe Trump many favors.

As Predictable As A Tax Cut for Job Creators: Donald Trump Floats Idea of a Third-Party Run Again

(Yahoo News) - At a town hall today in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Donald Trump floated the idea -- without explicitly threatening to do so -- that he may run as an independent candidate.

Trump attacked the Republican National Committee, saying it "better get its act together" and it "does a terrible job." Trump said he believes the RNC treated him unfairly.

Trump also went off on the crowd that booed him during Saturday night's GOP debate in South Carolina: "Look at it, that was a wealthy room."

"The whole room was made of special interests and donors, which is a disgrace from the RNC," Trump said. "The RNC better get its act together because, you know, I signed a pledge. The pledge isn’t being honored by the RNC."

Trump signed an RNC pledge in September, agreeing not to run a third-party candidacy and to support the eventual Republican nominee.

"I signed a pledge, but it’s a double-edged pledge. As far as I’m concerned, they’re in default on their pledge," Trump said of the RNC. Read more.