Bush campaign 6-point "save the campaign" plan

AROUND THE BLOCK

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How Jeb Bush Hopes to Save His Candidacy

Campaign details 6-point plan

The New York Times reported today that while nothing the Bush campaign has tried has been able to “lift Bush’s terrible poll numbers”, aides are preparing a long-shot plan to pull off what seems all but impossible — winning the Republican nomination for president. The plan has six elements.

1. Stay on the Attack

Mr. Bush has previously called opponent Donald J. Trump “a jerk,” “unhinged,” and a “chaos candidate”, and has not shied away from criticizing other contenders from the party’s establishment wing as well, including Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. But Bush insiders say the candidate will be “upping the ante” in 2016, particularly in regards to Trump.

Recognizing that Trump, determined to break his Yiddish habit, had recently completed a stay at a Yiddish-addiction rehab facility, the campaign has vowed to use every Yiddish epithet and curse against Trump in an attempt to cause Trump a relapse.

Calling Trump a gonif (thief, tricky person, shady character) who is no more than a common tummeler (noisy, commotion maker), Bush aides promised more to come. (Note: in a nod to non-Yiddish speakers, the Bush campaign, unlike Trump, offered definitions of their Yiddishisms).

2. Avoid Embarrassment in Iowa

The Times’ reporting suggests that Mr. Bush knows he is not likely to win Iowa. He just can’t lose there too badly. “In Iowa, Mr. Bush has two main goals: to finish no lower than fifth and, more important, to beat Mr. Christie”. At number five, Bush would most likely finish behind Cruz, Trump, Rubio and Carson but probably ahead of Christie as well as Huckabee, Fiorina, Kasich, Santorum, Pataki and Graham. It is not clear how that “avoids embarrassment”.

3. Win New Hampshire — or at Least Come in the Top 3

According to the Times, "expect Mr. Bush to practically move to New Hampshire" — the state where loyal donors are expecting a turnaround. While, as previously posted by Around The Block, the Bush campaign has instituted two new (old) tactics in New Hampshire, the hand written letter campaign and the door-to-door “Ding, Dong Avon Calling” approach, neither is expected to gain much traction because, as previously reported, almost no one reads hand-written letters or opens their front doors to strangers.

4. Woo Senator Lindsey Graham

Senator Graham, who recently dropped out of the campaign himself, is being wooed by Mr. Bush on the basis that he, Bush, was best prepared to be commander-in-chief and most qualified on Mr. Graham’s key issue, national security. While Graham has said he has no immediate plans to endorse any of the remaining candidates, he will ask Senator John McCain to tell him what to do as soon as possible.

5. The Big Brother, and the Bush Alumni Network 

The Times reports that though no final decision has been made, aides say the campaign is most likely to deploy the former president in South Carolina — where he remains popular — sometime after the New Hampshire primary. Why George W. Bush remains popular in the state, or anywhere else for that matter, is a subject for another analysis. And, the Jeb Bush campaign must be aware that controlling his brother might be difficult – as Around The Block has reported in the post on Jeb’s hand letter writing effort, the former president opined (without knowing what “opined” means), "I never hand-writed a letter in my life", and "hand-writed letters are so hard to read."  The former president went on to say, 'What Jeb really needs is someone like Cheney to whip him into shape. I mean, look what he did for me."

Speaking of which, and regarding the Bush Alumni Network, many of the alumni, including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Hadley, Rice, Perle, Tenet and Libby, among others, confirmed that they would do whatever it takes to help Jeb win the presidency and then convince him to lead the country into another war based on false intelligence and pretenses.

6. The Advertising Blitz

Mr. Bush’s super PAC, has so far spent tens of millions in television ads that have largely failed to help his standing in the polls. There was no response as to why they think the ad spending will start becoming effective now. And the emphasis on spending is in direct conflict with the announcement, as reported in Around The Block, that it was re-deploying upwards of $3 million in ad buys to fund the dubiously effective, retro  “Fuller Brush Man” and “Ding, Dong Avon Calling” door-to-door campaigns.