# Jeb Bush campaign for POTUS thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 16, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672 "2015-06-16T13:58:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 27
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/521 "2016-02-17T02:31:01Z")
What was that noise? Sounded like the rustle of a handsome check? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/522 "2016-02-17T02:49:15Z")
Dirty tricks with illegal centers make for great made-for-TV movies. As Nixon discovered to his cost, they tend to backfire spectacularly when there’s not a screenwriter in charge to contain the damage. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/523 "2016-02-17T03:00:40Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > What is he thinking? > > [x.com](https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/699706718419345408) That he needs the NRA vote. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/524 "2016-02-17T03:15:16Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > That’s so amateur I almost think there had to be sabotage someplace for that to never get bought or to be recently released. > > Or maybe some squatter bought it years ago, Trump quietly snagged it a year ago, and it’s been buried until now. And the Jeb! campaign figured whoever was holding it was benign, dead, or whatever. > > I’d love to get a traceback on the ownership of that name since Day One. Yeah its not that “Jeb! forgot to renew it” its that Jeb! was never using that domain name to begin with. Still its smart campaigning on Trumps part making his opponent look like an idiot for the cost of buying a new domain name. Wayback machine has snapshots from October 2015 for [Jebbush.com](http://Jebbush.com) but looks like it was just parked with a blank page. I’d bet someone registered it in october and just sold it Trump for a couple thousand dollars or more, given that Trump keeps telling us how rich he is. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150929075801/http://jebbush.com/](https://web.archive.org/web/20150929075801/http://jebbush.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/525 "2016-02-18T03:01:49Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Yeah its not that “Jeb! forgot to renew it” its that Jeb! was never using that domain name to begin with. This is such a massive unforced error it’s pathological. It’s less like a baseball player missing an easy catch and more like a player not even attempting to catch a ball that’s coming right at them. It’s enough to make observers suspect some kind of mental damage. I’m not saying Jeb is brain-damaged. I’m sure he’s reasonably intelligent. I’m also not saying any specific individual on Jeb’s staff is less than intelligent. I mean the campaign as a whole, the campaign seen as a collective entity with an overall herd intelligence, is not all there. The domain name should have been snapped up before most people even knew who Jeb Bush was. This isn’t 1996, and even in 1996 people made jokes about how poor old Bob Dole was desperately out-of-touch compared to the young and dynamic Clinton campaign. The fact _nobody_ was on the stick enough to prevent this means Jeb’s establishment backing isn’t enough. He has mountains of money and long lists of endorsements and he’s _still_ totally unprepared. He has no plan beyond Be Bush, and I can’t tell if that’s his entitlement showing or his party’s. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/526 "2016-02-18T03:06:28Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > This isn’t 1996, and even in 1996 people made jokes about how poor old Bob Dole was desperately out-of-touch compared to the young and dynamic Clinton campaign. Clinton’s current social media campaign is a laughing stock. remember this? > **[When candidates try too hard on social media](https://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/13/when-candidates-try-too-hard-on-social-media.html)** > > Hillary Clinton has received some backlash for her social media strategy, like asking people to explain their feelings about college debt using emoji. Bernie and Trump are both killing it on social media, and especially Bernie has a huge presence on reddit where there sub-reddits for each state helping to organise volunteers. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/527 "2016-02-18T04:28:13Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Clinton’s current social media campaign is a laughing stock. remember this? > [When candidates try too hard on social media](http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/13/when-candidates-try-too-hard-on-social-media.html) Yeah, the Clinton campaign hasn’t gotten off to a great start, and Clinton herself has a perception problem to overcome, which she’s actively made worse with that idiocy from Paglia and the rest of her “adult women support Clinton” nonsense. > [@](#): > > Bernie and Trump are both killing it on social media, and especially Bernie has a huge presence on reddit where there sub-reddits for each state helping to organise volunteers. Sanders is way more popular on most of Reddit than Trump. He has a lot of support among young, white progressives. The problem he has is expanding his support to literally anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/528 "2016-02-18T10:32:26Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Clinton’s current social media campaign is a laughing stock. remember this? > [When candidates try too hard on social media](http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/13/when-candidates-try-too-hard-on-social-media.html) They said much the same about Labour and the Tories last year and look who won. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/529 "2016-02-18T15:14:34Z")
Jeb! is from the days when there were a few big networks and big newspapers, and that was the whole of mass media. Talk radio seems to lend itself to screaming right wingers, not really a media battlefield there. And ok, cable, but much of that had no commercials. Anyway, in the old days, a wealthy candidate could flood “the mass media” with their message, people didn’t have other sources of information, and so we’d end up with Reagans and Bushes who only knew how to cut taxes, jack up the debt in an effort to destroy Social Security, start wars and generally screw the middle (and especially lower) class. Now nobody can fully control the media, and it matters to connect with people who are often cross-referencing what you say with comments from highly informed citizens. Simply repeating the heartless hard-right party line isn’t going to resonate with most people anymore, it just isn’t the only message people are getting. Bush can’t adapt. He must not realize how he looks on TV. And his message is stale. Trump has a lot of experience in media, and I think that is 3/4 of his advantage. But look! Frontrunner that he is, even Trump’s message is widely panned outside the GOP base. The GOP top-down, screw everybody approach just doesn’t sell in this new communications environment. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/530 "2016-02-18T15:18:06Z")
It’s also the legacy of the family name. While most Republicans SAY they like the Bushes, not many are interested in doing that again. If Jeb wasn’t a Bush, I think he’d be doing about as well as Kasich is doing. At this point, he’s doing worse. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/531 "2016-02-18T15:55:52Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s also the legacy of the family name. While most Republicans SAY they like the Bushes, not many are interested in doing that again. If Jeb wasn’t a Bush, I think he’d be doing about as well as Kasich is doing. At this point, he’s doing worse. So he’d be merely a loser instead of a laughingstock. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/532 "2016-02-18T16:18:44Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s also the legacy of the family name. While most Republicans SAY they like the Bushes, not many are interested in doing that again. If Jeb wasn’t a Bush, I think he’d be doing about as well as Kasich is doing. At this point, he’s doing worse. If Jeb wasn’t a Bush he would never have been Governor of Florida and he wouldn’t be a candidate for President. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/533 "2016-02-18T21:46:23Z")
[quote=“adaher, post:530, topic:722672”] It’s also the legacy of the family name. While most Republicans SAY they like the Bushes, not many are interested in doing that again. If Jeb wasn’t a Bush, I think he’d be doing about as well as Kasich is doing. At this point, he’s doing worse. [\quote]The irony is that nearly every GOP candidate’s proposals are nearly identical to those of W. They are all, after all, owned by the same entities. That GOP voters don’t seem to grasp this is a constant source of amazement. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/534 "2016-02-18T21:56:16Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s also the legacy of the family name. While most Republicans SAY they like the Bushes, not many are interested in doing that again. If Jeb wasn’t a Bush, I think he’d be doing about as well as Kasich is doing. At this point, he’s doing worse. The irony is that nearly every GOP candidate’s proposals are nearly identical to those of W. They are all, after all, owned by the same entities. That GOP voters don’t seem to grasp this is a constant source of amazement. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/535 "2016-02-18T22:00:31Z")
> [@GrandWino](#): > > If Jeb wasn’t a Bush he would never have been Governor of Florida and he wouldn’t be a candidate for President. True, but assuming that he made it that far on his own merits, he would be a credible Presidential candidate but in this environment would still fall short. He just wouldn’t be having such an embarrassing performance. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/536 "2016-02-18T23:00:35Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s also the legacy of the family name. While most Republicans SAY they like the Bushes, not many are interested in doing that again. If Jeb wasn’t a Bush, I think he’d be doing about as well as Kasich is doing. At this point, he’s doing worse. The irony is that nearly every GOP candidate’s proposals are nearly identical to those of W. They are all, after all, owned by the same entities. That GOP voters don’t seem to grasp this is a constant source of amazement. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/537 "2016-02-18T23:26:07Z")
@ **Try2BComprehensive** : There seems to be an echo in here this afternoon. 😃 > [@adaher](#): > > True, but assuming that he made it that far on his own merits, he would be a credible Presidential candidate but in this environment would still fall short. He just wouldn’t be having such an embarrassing performance. Agreed. By contrast: HRC in 2008 and in 2016 was/is also a dynastic heir apparent. We all know how 2008 turned out, and she may or may not fare any better this time. Time will tell. But I think on the basics both times she’s managed to run a competent campaign backed up by legit policies. Left-leaning ones of course, but legit within that intellectual / political tradition. Jeb? Not so much. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/538 "2016-02-19T00:19:34Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > @ **Try2BComprehensive** : There seems to be an echo in here this afternoon. 😃 > > Agreed. > > By contrast: HRC in 2008 and in 2016 was/is also a dynastic heir apparent. We all know how 2008 turned out, and she may or may not fare any better this time. Time will tell. > > But I think on the basics both times she’s managed to run a competent campaign backed up by legit policies. Left-leaning ones of course, but legit within that intellectual / political tradition. > > Jeb? Not so much. But, neither has anyone else on the Pub side, hardly. In the GOP, it just doesn’t seem to be a year for competent campaigning, nor for policies at all, and certainly not for policies legit within the American conservative tradition. William F. Buckley must be spinning in his grave. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/539 "2016-02-19T01:26:33Z")
Quite. Even a competent campaigner couldn’t sell conventional Republicanism to the current right-leaning populace. At least not over the din of Trump, Cruz, & Fox. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672/540 "2016-02-19T01:45:06Z")
Despite people here saying many times that Jeb has plenty of money, Red State [is reporting](http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/02/18/breaking.-bush-campaign-broke-stop-paying-staff-saturday/) he’s basically broke. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672.md?page=26) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeb-bush-campaign-for-potus-thread/722672.md?page=28)