Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate was critical for Jeb Bush. He had to show donors and voters that he was a fighter, with life in his campaign—that he could stand up to Donald Trump, take on Sen. Marco Rubio, and emerge as a front-runner for the GOP nomination
In other words, it was do or die. And Bush died. The debate clock tells the whole story; next to Sen. Rand Paul, who fell to the bottom, Bush had the least speaking time of any candidate on stage. Worse, he was on the losing end of a tough exchange. Early in the night, the former Florida governor came out swinging against his erstwhile protégé, Rubio. “Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term, and you should be showing up to work,” said Bush, hitting Rubio on his absence from the U.S. Senate. “You can campaign, or just resign and let someone else take the job.”
Bush had a hit. Rubio was supposed to stumble. But he didn’t. Instead, he accused Bush of playing politics in the most brutal way possible.
Well, it’s interesting. Over the last few weeks, I’ve listened to Jeb as he walked around the country and said that you’re modeling your campaign after John McCain, that you’re going to launch a furious comeback the way he did, by fighting hard in New Hampshire and places like that, carrying your own bag at the airport. You know how many votes John McCain missed when he was carrying out that furious comeback that you’re now modeling after?
[L]et me tell you. I don’t remember you ever complaining about John McCain’s vote record. The only reason why you’re doing it now is because we’re running for the same position, and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.
And that was it. Bush was finished. He spoke again throughout the night, but never with energy. Any wind he had—any fire or spirit—was gone. In a few seconds, Rubio had knocked Bush out of the game completely.
Put differently, if this was an “establishment” debate—hosted by CNBC, focused on the economy, and meant to give voice to the most viable candidates in the race—then it served its purpose. Bush might have cash reserves and support from family backers, but after tonight, he’s slipped to the second tier. He may not leave the race, but he’ll struggle to get traction. Now, Rubio—who gave another great performance—takes his place as the most viable candidate in the race, and as the closest thing to a front-runner.
But he’ll have rivals. Like Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz excelled on this stage. But where Rubio turned to biography to win applause and plaudits—reminding the audience that he has struggled with student loans and personal debt—Cruz turned to an old saw. He attacked the media. Constantly. “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” he declared in response to a question on compromise and the recent budget deal in Washington. “How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?”
Any wind Bush had—any fire or spirit—was gone.
The crowd went wild, Cruz returned to this theme, dodging questions with hits on the moderators. And as they lost control over the debate—struggling to keep candidates on time and to ask follow-up questions—other candidates did the same, slamming the “liberal media” at the pro-business, pro–Wall Street CNBC. Cruz doesn’t just leave Wednesday in good shape; if he gets a boost in the polls, he has a campaign that can capitalize on his gains.
With that said, it’s important not to get lost in the theater criticism of presidential debates. This was supposed to be on the economy, and while it jumped into issues such as same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization, that was largely true. And after the modest but steady gains of the Obama administration where is the Republican Party on growth, wages, and economic security?
The same place it’s always been. As with Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012, the signature policy plan for every Republican candidate is a tax cut. “We need somebody who can lead. We need somebody who can balance budgets, cut taxes,” said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, touting his record. “We’re reducing taxes to 15 percent. We’re bringing corporate taxes down, bringing money back in, corporate inversions,” said Donald Trump. “Growth is the answer,” declared Cruz. “And as Reagan demonstrated, if we cut taxes, we can bring back growth.” And the cuts are meant for high earners. Under Rubio’s plan, for example, the government wouldn’t tax income from dividends and capital gains, largely benefiting the wealthiest Americans. And while Rubio includes measures that benefit the bottom 10 percent of income earners, the overall effect of his supply-side cuts is to tilt the tax code toward the top at an even greater angle than exists now.
There’s more: Gov. Chris Christie called for Social Security benefit cuts and demogogued the program as broke (despite all evidence to the contrary) while Sen. Rand Paul and Ben Carson pitched the audience on their plans to slash Medicare benefits. Carson called for a flat tax, Cruz praised “sound money” and the gold standard, and Carly Fiorina attacked the federal minimum wage as unconstitutional. Candidates talked about their modest upbringings but couldn’t articulate plans for reducing student loans and debt. At most, Kasich pointed to online education, Bush pointed to “accountability,” and Rubio promised more vocational training.
In short, despite years of decrying Romney’s “47 percent” remarks, Republicans have stuck with the underlying idea: that the government does too much to redistribute wealth to low- and middle-income Americans, and too little to assist the richest citizens.
Which puts the GOP in an odd place. It has a strong candidate in Rubio, but it also wants to burden him with an unpopular message, rejected in the previous presidential election. And while Republicans can change course, the pressure of the GOP primary—which comes from the right, more than anywhere else—means that it almost certainly won’t.
Post by oscarnerdjulief on Oct 29, 2015 15:06:57 GMT -5
Rubio won the debate and has a pretty good chance of being the nominee.
Jeb seemed tone deaf on several occasions; the first that comes to mind is the riff on fantasy football. Gee, Jeb, we really care that you're 7-0 in fantasy football and have the Miami quarterback. Christie and Rubio really stung him with rebuttals.
It is painful watching him. I have never been embarrassed for a political candidate before, but he is just so fucking bad at this running for president thing that I feel sorry for him. He needs to do everyone a favor and get out.
It is painful to watch him. I'm serious when I say that he was the heir apparent has to be complete bullshit lol. Or maybe he could have won in the early 2000s, idk. It's fascinating.
I wonder how much pressure he's getting to drop out so Rubio can vacuum up his donors and build an actual ground game. But then, there's nothing precluding those donors from floating some cash to both of them.
All Jeb had to do was show up with his last name and some cash money when he ran for governor in Florida. The first time he tried it he lost. I'm really not surprised that he has no idea how to campaign amongst the common folk.
It is painful to watch him. I'm serious when I say that he was the heir apparent has to be complete bullshit lol. Or maybe he could have won in the early 2000s, idk. It's fascinating.
Completely agree. I'm really interested in this Bush story (heh), & will probably never find out, but man I'd pay big bucks to read Barbara's tell-all! Eta: just re-read my post, & wanted to clarify that "big bucks" = $2.99 (my self-imposed high roller/ good read limit for my Kindle) AND it would need to be a juicy, informative info! Not some "the duchess of France wore maroon lipstick!" crap.
Jeb is a very nice man, but very low energy. Not a good leader. I have created jobs, tens of thousands of job if you really want to know. I'll even create Jeb a job once he drops out of the campaign.
Jeb is a very nice man, but very low energy. Not a good leader. I have created jobs, tens of thousands of job if you really want to know. I'll even create Jeb a job once he drops out of the campaign.
Jeb is a very nice man, but very low energy. Not a good leader. I have created jobs, tens of thousands of job if you really want to know. I'll even create Jeb a job once he drops out of the campaign.
If Bernie doesn't win the primary (lol, that's not happening!) I'm totally voting for you over that DINO Shillary!