A case of the messenger being absolutely right.....but the absolutely wrong messenger. Kind of like Roseanne Barr calling Rosie O'Donnell a fat-assed diesel-dyke:
A fiery Jeb Bush....
Is that anything like "jumbo shrimp"?
....Thursday turned the table on rival Donald Trump, who's mercilessly taunted him as unelectable and dull – suggesting it's the brash billionaire who can't win because the 2016 vote isn't about how "great you are" or "how rich you are."
On the stump in New Hampshire, the former Florida governor never mentioned Trump's name in a meeting with voters, but there was no mistaking who he was talking about.
"There's other ways to deal with how we win," Bush told the gathering, adding "We gotta win."
But, he said, "You don't win when you're the large dog in the room where it's all about you."
"You win when you connect with people about their aspirations – not about how great you area, how rich you are, how this you are, how that your are. That's not leadership. Leadership is connecting with people on what their aspirations are, and giving them some hope that things can get better."
That's part of it. Leadership is also about leading in the right direction, not stubbornly sticking with failed ideas your base loathes and rubbing their noses in how inadequate you think they are. Bush III may or may not be "dull," but what he most definitely has been in the seven months or so since he declared his candidacy is complacent as hell. Finally he's shaking off his torpor, or at least trying to; Jeb's problem is that it's really hard to tell the difference between before and after, but what difference is discernable makes him look weak and more than a little desperate. This outburst can only get him targeted for more Trump ridicule, and a loudmouth contest is one in which Jeb is doomed to come out second-best.
Remember what I said weeks ago, folks: Ignore Trump when you can, and when you can't, treat him dismissively. Provoke him into making mistakes, not the reverse. Don't try to match him insult for insult and bombast for bombast. It's a losing proposition and plays right into his hands.
And even more so, don't try to attack what is the core of Trump's strength - that he's a jerk. He knows he's a jerk - he revels in it. And so do his weak, vain supporters because he's a jerk to all the people they can't stand. Instead, point out that we elected a "celebrity" back in 2008, and ask your listeners how that's turned out for us and why we would ever want our own version of the same thing. That, in turn, brings the conversation back to issues and ideological substance and track record and away from anger and rage and emotion, and segues into how Donald Trump is not a conservative, never has been a conservative, and would not suddenly become one if somehow elevated to the presidency.
And again, Jeb Bush is about the worst candidate in the field to be making that argument:
"Mr. Trump doesn’t have a proven conservative record," Bush continued, the Washington Post reports.
"He was a Democrat longer in the last decade than he was a Republican. He has given more money to Democrats than he’s given to Republicans."
"Even on immigration where ... the language is pretty vitriolic for sure," Bush added. "But hundreds of billions of dollars of costs to implement his plans is not a conservative plan. This is going to be my pitch: Let’s support someone who you don’t have to guess where he stands because he’s consistent, because he’s been governor he’s consistently had the views that he has."
Well, yeah, Jeb, but (1) it's going to take a lot of resources to deport thirty million illegals. You don't want to deport them, and you're using the cost as both an excuse not to and as "conservative" camouflage; and (2) amnesty is not a "conservative" plan.
Which gets to Jeb's abysmal political acumen and judgment, since if he wanted to discuss how leftwingnut Donald Trump is and how supposedly conservative he is by contrast, the last issue on the planet he should be broaching as an illustration is immigration. I can only imagine that he had "conservative" Common Core waiting in the on-deck circle.
"I think what people are eventually going to vote for is a proven conservative leader that’s done it — not talked about it, that’s actually done it," Bush said later, the Post reports.
Indeed, Jeb. His name is Scott Walker. Thanks for talking him up.
In the mean time, keep drumming up business for Starbucks.
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