JEB! and Rubio (JEB! lite) battle for third

(Politico) - As the bruising Republican primary fight moves south, the rivalry between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio is nearing a turning point.

Rubio’s advisers see South Carolina as something close to make-or-break after a disastrous fifth-place showing in the New Hampshire deeply wounded his candidacy. Bush, whose campaign has found new life in recent days, is trying to notch his second consecutive victory over Rubio – something his team hopes would sideline his rival as competition in the center-right lane.

Indeed, while Donald Trump and Ted Cruz duel for first, the battle between these Floridians has become a primary of its own, with the loser likely to face significant pressure from donors to plot an exit from the race, according to sources close to both men.

“It’s a cage match. One man wins, one man leaves. This is a political reality,” said South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, a former two-term Republican governor. “Any comparisons and contrasts will be made.” Read more.

Bush family values: 43 comes to Jeb's rescue

(CNN) - Jeb Bush, who has struggled with the political baggage attached to his famous last name, has finally come to a place where his family is not a liability: South Carolina.

This state has been good to the Bushes, handing key primary victories to both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush in their White House bids. As Jeb Bush looks to continue his family's winning streak on Saturday in the first southern primary, his campaign is becoming an all-hands-on-deck family affair.

George W. Bush will stump for his younger brother for the first time Monday night, attending a rally in North Charleston along with his wife, former first lady Laura Bush.

The rally comes after Jeb Bush's most forceful debate performance of the campaign, when he pushed back on Donald Trump for attacking his brother's national security record.

"I'm sick and tired of him going after my family," Jeb Bush said Saturday night. "My dad is the greatest man alive, in my mind. While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe and I'm proud of what he did."

Bush says Senate should reject an Obama Supreme Court nominee

It was clear that the audience was on Bush's side, as it loudly booed Trump and cheered for Bush.

But Trump wasn't letting go of his line of attack Monday morning, vowing to come after both brothers if necessary. Read more.

Why Donald Trump's vicious attack on George W. Bush was so brutally effective — and brilliant

(The Week) - There was an uninvited guest onstage Saturday night at the latest and most brutal Republican presidential debate: George W. Bush.

The focus on Bush 43's legacy signals a big problem for the GOP. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who declared in a prior debate that he missed the bygone president, pronounced W the winner last night. But no matter how much Jeb Bush defended his brother, or Marco Rubio came to the former president's aid, that Bush's legacy abruptly became a question at all, at this very late date, dealt the establishment a potentially crippling blow.

Yes, the establishment — there's that word again, used advisedly but of necessity. For what was supposed to be more established a fact in the Republican Party but that George W. Bush — at a bare, bare minimum — was the right man in office on Sept. 11? Yet here was Donald Trump, naked in a way few have really seen him before, slamming home the message again and again: W messed up. He hurt the party. And he hurt the country.

"The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush," Trump growled. "He kept us safe? That is not safe." Technically true, but, as is so often the case with Trump, the details came second to theme, and the theme went far beyond 9/11 or the gasps and boos Trump's comments brought. Trump slapped W on Iraq, too. "The war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. They lied," he said of Dubya's administration. "They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none."

Leave aside the particulars. (Saddam's men, ruled by fear and deceit, habitually lied and believed lies about their own WMD and other special weapons.) Trump's eye-popping broadsides against the Bush administration far exceeded some kind of coming-out party as a Democrat. Nor were they animated by a longing to merely belittle Jeb Bush or exact juvenile revenge. Rather, they were illustrative of the sweeping but specific theme of Trump's night and his campaign, revealed with typical deadpan cockiness in his closing remarks.

"Politicians are all talk, no action."

But wait, you say. George W. Bush took lots of action!

"You've seen where they've taken you to," Trump says. "We are [at a budget of] 19 trillion dollars right now […]. We need a very big change." Because, of course, "we don't win anymore."

Vacuous, you say. Pablum.

But consider the logic within. In a culture where "politics" has become an echo chamber — a vain hall of mirrors installed by the worship of rhetoric and self-regard — true politics, the art and science of victory, is dead. The kinds of action that arise from a corrupt political culture, from the corrupted idea that politics is a game of semiotics first, are, therefore, also corrupted: fake actions, actions without integrity, actions born to lose.

Trump is saying that, under George W. Bush, the Republican Party allowed its understanding of politics to be corrupted. For whatever reason, under Bush, the GOP became a party that let self-aware rhetorical posturing dictate the way policy was formulated. The result was failure across the board. Worst of all was the ensuing failure of memory as Republicans forgot the winning arts and sciences. In so doing, they enabled America to lose its way in the hall of mirrors — and lose its greatness.

This is a dagger to the heart of the Bush legacy. Read more.

Trump's Honest Attacks on the Bushes at the Grand Guignol Greenville Cage Match Expose a Curious Trait of the Southern Psyche, and May Portend Trouble for The Donald

Fiddle dee dumb! Hush, Hush Mean Donald!

Only a moron, a donor, or a Bush would love another Bush presidency.  This isn't about South Carolinians in denial either.  It's about "honor," and that is something every neocon[federate] South Carolinian takes very seriously.

But first, there is a little noticed thing about these debates, or cage matches if you prefer, that perfectly explain the Bush family, and why JEB! is making his doomed and vainglorious run.

They all offer "spin rooms" afterwards where the candidates go to meet the press and "spin" their performances. Trump goes to every one of them. Kasich goes. Dr. Carson is a regular. Almost every candidate probably has been in one sometime.  But one has never been.  That would be the Crown Prince John Ellis Bush. He always sends a retainer.  Spinning, like every other candidate's presidential qualities, is in the mind of a Bush, simply beneath them. Just like push polling and other nasty stuff.  Someone else has to do that for them.

Last night it was Senator Lindsey Graham, moon-eyed and gushing like a debutante at her Cotton Ball cotillion. And then it was former Senator Norm Coleman, who had the distinction of being voted out of office, and replaced by a stand up and late night TV comedian.

That was fitting because the royal blood had just been spilled yet again by TV's number one reality show comic demagogue, which bring us back to Trump and honor. 

Trump's overt attacks on W. Bush and his many incompetencies, and JEB!'s pitiful fall back to his mother and "family" is not going to impress South Carolina.  If you are not a Southern you don't understand.  Most Americans, even if they don't respect Donald Trump (and he is anything but respectable) admire grit. Donald is full of BS, but it takes real guts, even if you are a fraud otherwise, to stand up in a room full of Bush/Rubio donors and neocons loudly booing you on national television, and tell them W. was a liar about WMD (meaning they cooked the proof), remind them Bush was president when 911 happened, and that the Iraq war was a disaster from the day it started.

All those people in South Carolina, both in the hall and all over the state who voted for George W. Bush twice, probably understand that what Trump says is true, but they even more still think it proper to respect W. in public. It is simply the honorable thing to do in their minds.  And it also allows them to avoid making an uncomfortable admission of their own past bad political judgement. 

Trump had good success with the Yankees of New Hampshire, where his loud and brash New York style is admired, but Trump ran into trouble with the "Iowa nice" voters, and he may find himself in trouble with the gentility of Southern voters because of his brazen attacks on the Bushes. Southerners lock their idiots in the attic, they don't parade them around in public.  Which is why these same Southerners will smile and cheer for George W. Bush and his service to the country when he goes on parade in Dixie next week for JEB!, and then they will turn right around and quietly and privately show their fury at JEB! for his unseemly use of his "idiot" brother when they go vote next Saturday.

Saturday's "Cage Match" in Greenville Was a Circus Act for the Ages.

Every rodeo has a clown.  One that acts pathetic and runs from a charging bull, getting laughs and cheers from the crowd.

The Cirque du GOP has its share of expert clowns on this year's tour.  JEB! Bush has, for the most part, been an Emmett Kelly sort of clown, full of woeful sadness and pitiful performances.  Last night he played the part of a rodeo clown, ineffectively charging at, and running from The Bull, played by Donald Trump. The irony is that it set up Rubio to come to the defense of King George II W. Bush, and defend his war criminal record with a "Thank God" for W. moment, and that probably sealed JEB!'s fate for a solid fifth or sixth place finish in the Big Tent Clown Sack Race next Saturday.

Can a JEB! 2016 "suspension" not follow within days?  Will JEB! have Babs and W. at his side when he calls it quits? Will he refuse to concede and stay in the race?

Pressure on JEB! to drop out will be exceedingly great if he does not place a close third in the sack race next Saturday.  If he ignores reality and insists on remaining on the tour, there is only one final humiliation left to dump on him.  The poll threshold for all the remaining debates should be set at 10 percent support, and JEB! should be bumped from them.  That would send him backing back to Miami.

Dare Fox or any network refuse to offer a debate podium to a Royal Bush, regardless of their poll standings? We shall learn.

Prominent "Prosperity Gospel" Televangelist Says He Will Endorse Donald Trump

(Bloomberg) - Mike Murdock, head pastor at the Wisdom Center ministry, joins a handful of evangelical leaders backing the Republican presidential hopeful ahead of the South Carolina primary.

Days before the first Southern primary of 2016, Mike Murdock, a prominent Texas-based televangelist, will formally endorse Republican Donald Trump for president at a rally in Greenville, South Carolina, on Monday. 

“He has a warrior spirit for restoring America in the eyes of the world and he has a warrior’s heart,” said Murdock, the head pastor at the Wisdom Center ministry, told Bloomberg News in an interview. “I am endorsing him for president.”

Murdock, who frequently preaches about prosperity, arguing that a strong moral faith will lead to financial success for Christians, joins a handful of high-profile evangelists who have backed the billionaire candidate who's battling for supremacy in the Feb. 20 Republican primary in South Carolina. Two-thirds of Republican voters in the state describe themselves as evangelical.  Read more.

CAN GEORGE W. SAVE JEB!’S NECK IN SOUTH CAROLINA?

The complete answer is...no.

(Newsweek) - It is difficult to overstate how total and complete Donald Trump’s dominance was here in the New Hampshire GOP primary.

Trump won 35.1 percent of the vote—almost 20 points ahead of his nearest rival, John Kasich (with 15.9). Cruz, Bush and Rubio came in with what was effectively a three-way tie for third—separated by just 1 point.

But second and third in New Hampshire were nothing like second and third in Iowa. In Iowa, the top three candidates got 27.6 percent (Cruz), 24.3 percent (Trump) and 23.1 percent (Rubio). The difference between first and third was 3.3 points, and the difference between first and third was 4.5 percent.

So we got no clarity at all on the so-called “establishment lane,” with none of the candidates really earning any “bounce” out of the Granite State.

For months, we’ve been hearing about how Trump’s base was less-educated, low-information voters. Well, last night, according to exit polls, Trump beat every other GOP candidate in every single demographic group. Trump won:

• 46 percent of voters with high school degree or less;
• 38 percent of voters with some college;
• 32 percent of voters with college degrees and;
• 23 percent of voters with post-graduate degree.

Trump won 38 percent of voters with incomes under $30,000 and 31 percent of voters with incomes of $200,000 or more. He also won 32 percent of women—double the next closest candidate (Kasich with 16 percent).

So the idea that Trump is simply turning out uneducated, low information voters is wrong. He beat the pack among men and women, rich and poor, factory workers and rocket scientists.

Now the race moves to South Carolina, but instead of the GOP field being clarified in New Hampshire, it has been muddied. Bush’s 11.1 percent fourth-place showing—which cost him a field topping $36 million—apparently earned him a ticket out of Manchester, if only in coach.

Bush has spent most of that money attacking not Trump but Marco Rubio. And apparently, he plans to continue that strategy in South Carolina. Politico reports that Bush plans to launch a “scorched-earth attack” on Rubio and Kasich in the Palmetto State.

But the really interesting dynamic in South Carolina will be the re-entry of former President George W. Bush into the political fray after eight years on the sidelines. In New Hampshire, Jeb announced that his brother “is going to campaign for me in South Carolina. I’m excited about that.”

That is smart strategy. Jeb is polling at just 10 percent in South Carolina, but his brother remains extremely popular in the state. It remains to be seen whether any of that popularity rubs off on Jeb, but the really interesting dynamic will be how Trump reacts when George W. joins the campaign.

Trump has made no secret of his utter disdain for the 43rd president, whom he has called a “disaster.” In October, he accused Bush of ignoring intelligence warnings that the 9/11 attack was coming and declared, “When you talk about George Bush, I mean—say what you want—the World Trade Center came down during his time.”

The question is: Will Trump attack 43 on the campaign trail and try to draw him into the debate? Attacking the former president could backfire.

According to a Bloomberg poll, he remains the single most popular GOP figure in the country with a 77 percent approval rating among Republicans. And 43 has a special relationship with South Carolina, the state that saved his 2000 presidential campaign after his loss to John McCain in New Hampshire.

Trump needs to remember: There may be lots of Trump supporters in South Carolina who are also George W. Bush supporters. And while their residual loyalty to 43 may not translate into votes for Jeb, they won’t like it if Trump tries to attack George W. Bush. Read more.