RUSH: I have a story. The Jeb-can-fix-it tour launches with high hopes. ABC News: “Jeb Bush launches his ‘Jeb Can Fix It’ tour today.
“The embattled GOP presidential candidate is beginning the tour in his home state of Florida, traversing the state with three events in three different cities.
“He’ll begin with remarks in Tampa, head to an event near Orlando and end with a town hall in Jacksonville. He’ll head to South Carolina Tuesday and then start a two-two day swing in New Hampshire, where his first bus tour will begin. The tour and the release of his e-book, ‘Reply All Today,’ are all in an effort to jumpstart a campaign that many say has been flailing, after tumbling poll numbers and a widely panned debate performance.”
Okay, now, look. I told you this is very hard, to be critical of people that you know and that you like. On a personal level, ladies and gentlemen, the Bush family has been nothing but gracious and nice and supportive of me. I do not have one bad thing to say about them as people, their character, human beings and so forth. They are quality people. But it doesn’t prevent me from observing that it never has appeared to me that Jeb really wants this. Jeb has always appeared to me, even from the first days of the campaign, has always appeared to me as a stand-in for powers behind the scene who want back in. I don’t know the names. I mean, you might think I’m talking about Karl Rove. I’m not talking about just Karl Rove. There’s all kinds, and the donors. But there are others.
You know, it’s a rare place, power in Washington, rarefied air when you’re president and everybody working for the president breathes the same rarefied air. Once you’ve tasted it, once you’ve inhaled it, you answer you have exhaled it, you want it back. There’s something addictive to it. But Jeb has always seemed like the front man for the people behind the scenes who really want it, and it’s the people behind the scenes concocting all of these marketing plans and campaign strategies to get Jeb there. How long has this been going on? The first debate was August 3rd. Mr. Snerdley, if you had to peg a beginning point of this campaign when Jeb had announced and all the others had announced, how old this campaign? (interruption) Okay, the campaign is a year and a half old, and then Trump got in and blew everything up. Trump got in when? Trump got in May. Since May, has Jeb Bush polled over 10% since May? That’s my point. The high point, wherever it was was months ago, and whatever it was, and he’s at five or six, and he’s holding steady.
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RUSH: I guess I need to correct myself. Jeb announced on June 15th. Trump announced on June 16th. That surprises me. I’m like you. I thought Trump was in there — (interruption) who, Jeb? Yeah. Well, I think that announcement was delayed because of something to do with funding, PACs, donors, legal filings and that sort of stuff, yeah. But, yeah, he was running before June the 15th. Trump, for some reason I thought that was May, just to show you how time goes.
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RUSH: Now, back to Jeb Bush, Weekly Standard: “Jeb Campaign Resets For Fifth Time.” Yep. Exactly last hour, I asked — by the way, I looked into this. Jeb’s high point was at 19% in July. It’s been downhill since then. Nineteen points was the top polling number that Jeb, the preference in a presidential primary election poll that Jeb has achieved. It’s been downhill ever since, and there have been a bunch of different reboots, just like there were with Hillary.
Now, the press does not catalog Hillary. They just report: “Hillary Clinton with a new presidential announcement.” They never tell you it’s her fourth or fifth, and they never ask why Hillary needs to constantly reboot. But here’s the Weekly Standard: “Jeb Campaign Resets For Fifth Time — Since the two-term Republican first began exploring a presidential bid at the beginning of the year, Bush campaign has seen five shakeups, resets, or shifts in course.” Before we get to nine, grab sound bite number 20. Here is Jeb this morning in Tampa on the fifth reboot which is called the “I can fix it” tour.
JEB: We need a president who fixes America’s standing abroad. I can fix it. (cheers and applause) After seven years of massive deficits, historic debt, and a president who vetoes defense spending because he wants more reckless spending, we need a president who fixes our budgetary mess. I can fix it. (cheers and applause) I know I can fix it because I’ve done it.
RUSH: There we go, and there goes the political resume again. (aigh) I don’t mean to sigh, folks. That sigh was not in frustration at anything. I’m just exhaling CO2. I mentioned during that last debate that every time Jeb started citing what he had done as governor, I practically yelled, one time I did yell. I said, “Don’t you understand this is why you’re not doing well? People want outsiders. Political professionals, well-oiled political people are not what people in this primary want. You are killing yourself by telling everybody what you did as governor. It doesn’t matter. Politicians doing what they do very well has led to what everybody thinks is a crisis-related mess. “I can fix it. I know I can fix it because I’ve done it.”
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