Even left-leaning news thinks Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and struggling Republican candidate for president, ought to call it quits and go home.
The Daily Beast, a daily news outlet not known for any pro-conservative bent, opined in its Tuesday pages the sluggish candidate who’s polling poorly on the national stage and in fourth place in New Hampshire, should drop out of the race.
“Jeb, this isn’t working,” wrote Will Rahn. “You’re a bad candidate, and all you’re going to do now is damage the guy who can beat Trump. Is that what you want?”
He went on: “Jeb, this just isn’t going to work. After all that money spent, you’re still sagging nationally and in fourth place in New Hampshire, a state you need to win. You’ve had nearly a year to make your case. It isn’t working. You should pack it in.”
As Rahn pointed, “conventional wisdom” at the start of the campaign trail was Bush would only have to distance himself from his brother’s “catastrophic presidency” and show voters how his voice was different.
“Now, in a fit of desperation, it looks like you’re about to draft him to stump for you,” he said. “Putting aside that George W. is still despised by a not-insignificant swath of the Republican electorate, how is that going to play in the general should you somehow win the nomination? You’re making the Democrats’ job easy, Jeb. They’ll be more than happy to attach you to his legacy and you’re doing that for them.”
Rahn said the Democrats are banking on the lowest-ranking candidates, like Rand Paul and George Pataki, to drop out next. But Bush, for the sake of the party, ought to join that ship, he said.
“Your Rand Pauls and George Patakis … what damage do they do to the GOP by staying in? You Bushes, meanwhile, for all your patrician aloofness, are some of the dirtiest campaigners out there and every jab you get in at your fellow establishmentarians like Marco Rubio are going to be used against them by the left,” he wrote. “It’s one thing to toughen up a nominee in a primary fight. It’s another to make them damaged goods, unready to lead.”
Rahn, after calling George W. a “nincompoop,” said to Jeb: “You’ve already had more than your fair share of flubs.” And the conclusion?
“Pride and regret are not good reasons to stay in the race … [and] you don’t seem to want the job. You’re not as politically adroit as others in the race,” he wrote. “[and] your continued presence on the campaign trail will likely wind up helping the other side. So just go home, Jeb. There’s no dishonor in leaving politics behind.
