Bush Attacks from Position of Weakness

Rick Klein: “Jeb Bush’s decision to open a direct line of attack on Donald Trump may have minimal risk on its face. He’s getting attacked by Trump anyway, so why not try to score some blows that help Bush himself establish his conservative bona fides? What’s remarkable, though, is that Bush is on the attack from a position of relative weakness. He’s slipping in the polls, of course. His standing among conservatives in particular is suffering even in comparison to Donald Trump.”

“This trend is troubling to a Bush campaign that never anticipated the Trump surge to last this long. More troubling, though, is the potential that Trump isn’t just convincing conservatives to support him but changing conservatives’ beliefs on what it means to be conservative. Bush can’t compete with Trump on his malleability, but he also can’t match his economic populism or his disassociation with a political establishment that’s defined in part by the Bush name.”