Republicans are getting nervous about Jeb Bush.
Jeb’s spent the past 24 hours in the hot seat since questioning whether “we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues” — and the rising skepticism among Republicans should have him squirming.
Bush’s mounting slip-ups and inadvertent revelations of his far-right positions is drawing the ire of Republicans, who are increasingly disenchanted with Jeb’s candidacy, drawing unflattering comparisons with the likes of Mitt Romney and — even worse — Todd Akin.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Read more on Republicans’ concerns about Jeb’s candidacy:
Democratic critics of Jeb Bush’s ad-lib Tuesday about cutting women’s health spending were joined by conservatives, who are annoyed that the inartful statement may undermine their efforts to finally score a win against Planned Parenthood.
Despite his swift damage control efforts, Bush’s casual aside Tuesday afternoon that “I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health programs” threw the Democratic attack machine into overdrive.
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Meanwhile, some Republicans fumed.
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Meanwhile, some Republicans fumed.
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“Conservatives aren’t happy,” said a GOP strategist close to a rival campaign. “He just set the entire movement back with a gaffe that conflated the horrific videos at Planned Parenthood with women’s health. This, at a time when even some Democrats in Congress were feeling the pressure to vote to defund Planned Parenthood.”
Guy Benson, a GOP pundit and author, lamented via Twitter that the legislation considered by Congress “didn’t cut any $ from women’s health funding. Redirected away from PP to others. Key fact, carefully messaged. Jeb undermines.”
For Bush, it marked the third time in a month that a carelessly phrased off-the-cuff comment has sparked controversy — causing consternation anew that the party’s best-funded potential nominee has been, in the early months of the primary fight, something of a gaffe machine.
“Every time Bush has stuck his foot in his mouth, it’s been a ‘Clean up on Aisle 3’ moment,” said Craig Robinson, a longtime GOP operative in Iowa. “I think it shows a real lack of message discipline with Bush. We’ve seen more errors out of Jeb Bush this campaign than most of the other candidates.”
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But some Republicans, especially those who share Kaufman’s view of Bush as a tremendously capable candidate, are surprised by his struggles.
“To me, it’s shocking that it’s Jeb Bush causing the problem rather than the usual suspects you’d expect,” Robinson said. “And it really doesn’t matter who the Republicans nominate; the left is going to go after the Republican nominee incredibly hard on these women’s choice issues.”
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Some conservative-leaning writers and observers criticized Bush, as Republicans seek to avoid “gaffes” that plagued candidates in the 2012 election cycle.
CNN: Jeb Bush stumbles into debate night
After stumbling this week, Jeb Bush heads into Thursday’s debate facing a key question: Is he ready to run for president in an era when every gaffe can go viral?
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Still, the incidents underscore how Bush, the powerhouse politician who was once thought to be the man who could clear the GOP presidential field, is struggling to find his footing in a race that’s been upended by Donald Trump’s surge in the polls.
CNN: Jeb Bush stumbles into debate night
After stumbling this week, Jeb Bush heads into Thursday’s debate facing a key question: Is he ready to run for president in an era when every gaffe can go viral?
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Still, the incidents underscore how Bush, the powerhouse politician who was once thought to be the man who could clear the GOP presidential field, is struggling to find his footing in a race that’s been upended by Donald Trump’s surge in the polls.
Perhaps more importantly, the missteps raise questions about whether Bush is ready to wage the type of disciplined, savvy campaign required in the modern political era to win the White House.
“It speaks to the changes in campaigns since the last time he ran for office. It used to be you make a comment like that; by evening you put out your statement, and the statement ends up in the same story. That whole thing on women’s health issues swept around the world before the campaign retracted it,” said Katie Packer, a former adviser to Mitt Romney who specializes in helping candidates hone their message to Republican and independent women. “The speed at which things travel is probably new to him. You learn that when you’re running, especially in the presidential cycle. All of this serves to make him look a little out of touch.”
When a candidate stumbles the first time, as Bush did earlier this year when pressed on his brother’s invasion of Iraq, Packer said, some voters gauging his electability might have given him a pass — thinking he simply wasn’t prepared for that particular question. “But if they keep not getting these answers sharp; it starts to look like you’re just not sharp” as a candidate, she said.
While Packer said Bush won’t ever be able to “totally clean that (Planned Parenthood comment) up, he’s going to have to come out very strongly in advocating what his position is on women’s health and what the federal government’s role is in that.”
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“Presidential politics isn’t very different from professional football — quarterbacks are going to throw interceptions, and sometimes those interceptions might fall at the feet of the quarterback. And Jeb Bush just threw one,” said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who advised George W. Bush and John McCain. “He has to understand the demographic challenges facing the Republican Party and little things like that make it difficult to win the game.”
Inquisitr: Latest Jeb Bush Gaffe Draws Todd Akin Comparison
Just a couple weeks after his damaging “work longer hours” gaffe, former Florida Governors Jeb Bush, who last campaigned for office in 2002 before this current campaign, committed yet another severe blunder, Breitbart News reported today. Comparing this latest gaffe to the “legitimate rape” blunder by former Missouri Senate nominee Todd Akin, Breitbart reported how Bush said, in part, “I’m not sure we need a half-billion dollars for women’s health issues.”
“You could take dollar for dollar — although I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues — but if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine community health organizations that exist to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues,” Bush said.
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The Bush gaffe got attention in Breitbart News and has drawn criticism from others on the conservative side of the political spectrum as well.
“It wasn’t just Democrats who blasted Bush for his on-stage remark,” CNN reported, “Guy Benson, the political editor at the conservative news website Townhall, tweeted that Bush’s comment will allow Democrats to obfuscate on five controversial Planned Parenthood videos that have stoked a conservative push to block federal funds from flowing to the organization by conflating that push with a debate over women’s health.”
Breitbart: Jeb Bush Pulls A Todd Akin, Hillary & CNN Pounce
A massive unforced error committed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush Tuesday has not only allowed Hillary Clinton and her media (especially CNN) to go on the offense over the Planned Parenthood issue, it has created a video clip that will haunt Bush and the GOP for as long as Bush is in the presidential race.
During a relaxed forum where Bush was under no pressure and had plenty of time to expand on anything he wanted to discuss, he said, “I’m not sure we need a half-billion dollars for women’s health issues.” Full quote below.
“You could take dollar for dollar — although I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues — but if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine community health organizations that exist to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues,” Bush said.
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This isn’t Bush’s first mistake either, he JerryLewis-ed all over a simple question about the Iraq War, or The Question He Should Have Been Most Ready To Answer Above All Others.
If we are always cleaning up a mess in aisle four, always on defense, always explaining instead of attacking, we look weak and feckless. That is the real issue, not the misstatement.
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The point is competence. The point is that the supposed grown-ups among the Republican Establishment and the arrogant Consultant Class promised us that they will not make the kinds of mistakes that tell voters the Republican Party is not ready for primetime.
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The point is competence. The point is that the supposed grown-ups among the Republican Establishment and the arrogant Consultant Class promised us that they will not make the kinds of mistakes that tell voters the Republican Party is not ready for primetime.
The only good news here is that if Bush is going to self-destruct, it is better that we know that now.
Business Insider: Hillary Clinton Pounces On Jeb Bush’s Unscripted Gaffe
Bush’s comments about Planned Parenthood included an apparent aside in which he said he was “not sure we need half-billion dollars for women’s health issues,” a reference to the federal funding that Planned Parenthood receives.
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Some conservative-leaning writers and observers criticized Bush, as Republicans seek to avoid “gaffes” that plagued candidates in the 2012 election cycle.
Washington Post: Heading Into Debate, Jeb Bush Stumbles Again
Bush was warmly received at the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday as he voiced strong opposition to federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a widely held sentiment among Republicans. But he also wondered aloud whether federal funding for all women’s health research should be reduced.
“You could take dollar for dollar — although I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health issues — but if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine organizations, community health organizations, that exist, federally sponsored community health organizations, to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues,” Bush said.
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Ron Bonjean, a Republican consultant who remains neutral, said that because Bush hosts so many free-wheeling town hall meetings and press conferences, “he’s prone to make more mistakes.”
“For now it feels like he’s ironing the kinks of his delivery and fine-tuning it,” he said. “But those types of gaffes will have to come to an end, sooner rather than later.”
Published: Aug 6, 2015