Something else was happening while Jeb Bush tried to backtrack from doubling down on his brother’s foreign policy — he cratered in national and key primary state polls, a clear rejection from conservative and mainstream Republicans of Bush’s record.
- Bush ranked seventh in Iowa with only 5 percent in a Quinnipiac poll last week after having 10 percent in February. 45 percent of Iowans say Bush isn’t conservative enough — so many that Bush dropped out of the Iowa Straw Poll.
- Bush tied for fourth nationally with Ted Cruz and earned 9 percent in a late-April Fox News poll, .
- Bush tied for fourth in New Hampshire at 11 percent in a Bloomberg poll last week, even as he’s staked his presidential ambitions on the state.
Stu Rothenberg put together an infamous list of what losing campaigns do. Losing campaigns with no momentum, for example, say things like “the polls are totally irrelevant.” Campaigns scraping the bottom of the barrel say, “I think everybody needs to take a chill pill on the polls.” Both are direct quotes from Jeb.
Published: May 13, 2015