Woody Johnson, "Jersey" Jets Owner, Will Support JEB! for 2016

(New York Times) - Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets and a top fund-raiser for the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, will support Jeb Bush’s likely presidential campaign in 2016. The decision adds to Mr. Bush’s efforts to dominate fund-raising in the first few months of 2015 to demonstrate the strength of a potential candidacy. It is also a blow to Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, who is considering a campaign of his own and has been struggling to attract new donor support. Mr. Johnson has told associates and friends about his decision, according to two people familiar with his thinking, who were granted anonymity to speak because they were not authorized to discuss Mr. Johnson’s thinking. Mr. Johnson is a coveted supporter in Republican circles. He is an aggressive fund-raiser who not only taps his personal fortune, but also urges his network of wealthy friends and associates to get behind his favored candidate. Read more.

The Hildabeast still thrashing the Crown Prince in latest swing state poll

Hillary is beating JEB! six ways to Sunday in the latest Quinnipiac poll of general election voters in Iowa and Colorado, 45 to 35 and 44 to 36, respectively.  In Virginia the two are tied, 42 all, but again the Crown Prince can do no beater than the low forties in what should be a neocon-friendly Southern state. Paul runs much better than JEB! against Hillary in Colorado, 43 to 41, a statistical dead heat.  Paul, of course, has no real chance of being the nominee of a cronyist plutocrat and neocon dominated party like the GOP. Shockingly, in a recent NBC News/Marist poll in South Carolina, which along with Utah is probably the most reliably Republican presidential state in the US, the Crown Prince was beating Hillary by only three points, 48 go 45.

JEB! cannot escape his brother's undeniably disastrous presidency

(The Week) - Earlier this year, Mitt Romney had a Galadriel moment. He appeared to be briefly seized by a vision of himself as an all-powerful, world-striding President Romney, before turning away from temptation and settling for the plain old Mitt Romney he has always been. It was political theater at its most bizarre, a flack-driven frenzy that doubled as a flashback to the self-delusion that blinded the Romney 2012 campaign in its final days. With Romney now out of the way, Jeb Bush has consolidated the support of the GOP's moneyed class with surprising alacrity. As Politico noted last week, the contest for the Republican nomination was previously seen as a "free-for-all among a half-dozen or so viable candidates" but has since shifted to a game of catch-up, with a clear leader way out front who has a "bull's-eye on his back." He may soon be out of sight: The Washington Post reported that Bush is amassing so much money so quickly that his potential rivals "do not even claim they can compete at his level." The Republican primary process is a fearsome thing for any establishment candidate, but history shows that he (and it is always a he) will win in the end. None of this is good news for Bush's would-be competitors, whether they be on the fringe (Rand Paul, Ted Cruz), slow starting out of the gates (Chris Christie), or Pawlenty-esque (Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal). The problem for the GOP is that a Bush running in 2016 is almost as eye-rubbingly bizarre as another Romney campaign. Read more.

50 % of Americans See the Future in Hillary Clinton, 64 % say JEB! represents the past

This is important only for the comparison between the Hildabeast and the Crown Prince:

JEB! is the "40 percent man"

(Time) - Half of Americans think Hillary Clinton represents the future better than any other potential 2016 presidential candidate, according to a new poll, but almost as many Americans think she represents the past. The results of the CNN/ORC survey released Wednesday both belie the argument by Clinton critics that Americans will view the former Secretary of State and First Lady as a return to old ways in Washington but also point to the political polarization likely to greet her campaign if she runs as expected. The poll, which asked whether seven potential candidates represent the future or the past, also found that 64% of Americans think Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Vice President Joe Biden represent the past. Read more.

StabelyTimes: Hillary Clinton 2016: why Jeb Bush, Rand Paul can’t stop her

Former top Romney strategist backs JEB!'s possible 2016 White House run

(FOX BNN) - A top adviser to Mitt Romney's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns has backed a likely White House run by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a Bush aide confirmed to Fox News late Tuesday.  Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman, has been meeting with and speaking to conservative heavyweights in effort to persuade them of Bush's credentials, a Washington-based GOP operative said.  Though Bush has not formally announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, most observers believe it is all but certain that he will formally launch his campaign later this year. Weber's support for Bush was first reported by The Washington Post. Read more.

For policy, JEB! shops at Walmart

(Politico) - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has the early lead — in publishing four white papers — with his latest tome out Monday on education reform. Rick Perry’s attempt to look smart continued last week in Washington, where the former Texas governor dined with a pair of Middle East specialists — Elliott Abrams and Eliot Cohen — at an expensive steakhouse a couple blocks from the White House. Then there’s Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who has attracted leading GOP heavyweights like Robert Zoellick and has tasked former Walmart CEO Bill Simon with hiring dozens of specialists who may need to move to … wait for it … Miami.

Next year’s election is shaping up to be the strongest on policy in recent history, thanks to a wide-open, issue-hungry presidential field and the promise that no matter who wins, 2017 may just be the year that the legislative logjam finally breaks and big things get done again in Washington.

And while it’s a year until the Iowa caucuses, all of the candidates need ideas — and fast.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is pulling together a team tasked with the challenging job of charting a new, post-Barack Obama path. It will be packed with party heavyweights (including her husband) with more than two decades of experience battling Republicans on everything from the environment to budget deficits. Read more.

Is the Bush Family Brand a Liability for JEB!? (DUH?)

(BloombergView) - The legacy matchup -- Jeb versus Hillary -- has politics aficionados salivating, or recoiling, with the first 2016 presidential votes almost a year away.

The former secretary of state, a prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination, won’t simply be coronated, as some anticipate. Already, there are internal frictions in Clintonland that recall her 2008 campaign.

The problems facing the former Florida governor are more in the open: For a candidate that much of the Republican Party establishment views as a strong front-runner, he gets surprisingly bad marks from voters.

In an NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll last month, Jeb Bush was viewed positively by only 19 percent of respondents; 32 percent viewed him negatively. By contrast, Hillary Clinton had a 45 percent positive and 37 percent negative.

Two recent Bloomberg Politics polls, in Iowa and New Hampshire, the initial tests, are revealing.

In Iowa, among likely Republican voters, Bush has a 43 percent unfavorable rating, unusually high.

In a tightly packed race, he finishes first among New HampshireRepublican primary voters. But he is viewed unfavorably by 50 percent of the general electorate in that battleground state. Of the 22 possible presidential aspirants, only Donald Trump is perceived more negatively. Read more.