Election 2016… Trump Rolls … and… Jeb.. Is … Out

by Scott Creighton

I guess there is a reason I don’t usually do political prognostication.

This evening, Jeb Bush suspended his bid to become the next president of the United States of America. After a poor showing in the republican South Carolina primary, a state which has historically been favorable to the Bush candidates of the past, Jeb announced his withdrawal from the race.

“I am proud of the campaign we have run to unify our country. To advocate conservative solutions that would give more Americans the opportunity to rise up and reach their God-given potential. But the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I respect the decision, so tonight I’m suspending my campaign. I congratulate my competitors that are remaining on the island on their success, for a race that has been hard-fought.” Jeb Bush

Donald Trump won the primary with 32.5% of the vote. Rubio came in second with 22.5% and Cruz rounded up a third place finish with 22.3%. Bush pulled off a forth place finish with 7.8% beating out both Kasich and Carson.

I guess the pope’s opinion doesn’t carry much weight in Carolina and since it is a winner take all state, the lump sum of their 44 delegates go to The Donald.

On a side note, Hillary Clinton edged Bernie Sanders in Nevada, 52.6% to 47.4%. The republican caucus in Nevada is in three days and at the time, Donald Trump leads the nearest contender by 20 points in the polls. Clinton is expected to win the South Carolina Democratic Primary to be held on Feb. 27th.

As usual with a Clinton victory these days, there are discrepancies already developing surrounding the count:

Hillary Clinton easily bested Bernie Sanders in the Nevada Democratic caucuses on Saturday. But whether that was thanks to Latino voters — or in spite of them — isn’t clear.

That’s because of contradictory results from the event. Entrance polls found that 53 percent of Latinos were supporting Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.), compared to 45 percent supporting former Secretary of State Clinton. But Clinton won caucuses in heavily Latino areas, casting doubt on whether the polling presented an accurate picture of how Latinos voted. Huffington Post

Imagine that.

It should also be noted that she won Nevada in 2008 as well over then Sen. Obama and we all know how that worked out.

All that said, now that the dust has settled, Jeb is the story today. His super pac spent $116 million dollars. He brought out his mommy and his war criminal brother and dangled them in front of the voters and none of that made a lick of difference.

It was reported yesterday that his campaign staff were shopping around for jobs down in Florida. I guess they knew what was coming.

It’s been my contention for some time that they were going to find a way to rig the primaries in order to usher Jeb into the White House but I guess they can only massage the numbers so much and Jeb just couldn’t get over his biggest drawback in this contest: himself.

Jeb Bush is a passionless bump of a human being with no discernible talent for public speaking or persuasion. His quirky mannerisms and hunched over stance read as “tells” to his audience, further undermining his believably factor, which is extremely low to start with considering who’s son and brother he is.

Like I wrote a week ago, they gave Jeb all the good lines in the debates, but he just flubbed them with his peculiar Deep Twitchy delivery. I guess even 116 million bucks can’t make a sow’s ear into a silk purse.

Try as they might, turns out the people simply don’t want another Bush in the White House any more than they want another Clinton roaming around those hollowed halls stealing the silverware… again. So the powers that be, the ones who financed that $116 million campaign, seem to have pulled the plug on the purse leaving all those Bushites looking for work down here in the Sunshine State.

Now before you get all “you don’t know what you’re talking about” on me, I feel at this point I should remind you, Jeb’s daddy didn’t waltz into the Big House his first go-round either. Remember that? The Rockefellers wanted Poppy sitting behind that desk in a bad way but Ronnie Raygun was just too damn smooth with all that TV experience behind him (sound familiar?), and Poppy was less trust inspiring than Jeb is now. He was Deep Scary. Head up the CIA and kill a president or two and you tend to get that way I guess.

So what did they do? Rockefeller told Reagan he wanted George H. W. Bush on the ticket or he wouldn’t fund the campaign and Ronald gave in.

Then 60 days after he was sworn into office, Ronald was shot by the son of a Bush family friend and business partner (    ) leaving Poppy to take the Presidential Daily Briefings for the next 7 years. Talk about a work-around.

And there is another way this could all turn back toward Bushmerika: a brokered convention.

That’s basically where the party insiders choose the candidate in the backroom of the convention if they don’t think the people’s choice stands a chance of beating the Democratic Party candidate. If Cruz and Rubio stick it out and they keep trading wins back and forth throughout the primary season, the delegate count could be close enough for them to justify a brokered convention.

Oddly, the last time there was a contested convention in the Republican Party was 1976 and that also involved Ronald Reagan who was neck and neck with Ford throughout the primaries.

According to party rules, any candidate for consideration of being ordained as the Republican Party nominee would have to have won 8 primaries or caucuses so that would rule out Jeb but who here really thinks they are going to stick to the rules when it comes to beating Hillary?

So that is still a possibility, albeit a slim one.

Jeb once said a successful republican candidate this year must be willing “to lose the primary to win the general” which makes very little sense unless of course, you happen to be named “Bush” After all, his brother lost the general and won the White House so who can argue with him.

However you look at it, Jeb is out. My prediction of them crowning him King Bush III has proven inaccurate. At least for now.

God help us, maybe after watching him flub around for 9 months, they figured Hillary would suit their needs better than Deep Twitchy. Or maybe it’s time for a billionaire scripted reality TV show star to take the main stage with his magical epic comb-over.

God help us all.

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