Regardless how serious Rubio is, he will not be the nominee. I would be surprised if he even achieved the status of not-Bush; similar to last cycle’s not-Romneys, all of whom took the spotlight from Mitt for a while, excited the base, but ultimately faded away. Right now the not-Bush is obviously Trump. Carson and Walker may have a turn. Heck, even Cruz may get a turn. Ultimately, however, Bush will be elevated and promoted as the only one who can beat Hillary.
Do people really think Bush can beat Hillary, though? So far he is really a stinker.
Anyway, his tax plan isn’t All bad- I don’t think incentivizing/rewarding work, especially for low income earners, is a bad idea. But the supply-side lie has to go, it is an absolute disqualifier in my mind. The deficit and debt are still real issues that need to be addressed. This is accomplished by raising revenue and cutting spending- military first and most, or no deal (and not grunt pay or VA cuts either). No one can propose tax cuts for the rich and be serious about the deficit; on the contrary, that just says they are on board with the GOP’s unstated agenda to pump up the debt until it can be used as an excuse to slash or kill Social Security and Medicare. No deal. Bush earned his Hellen Keller reference in this thread.
Trump has stated that he does not want to cut Social Security or Medicare, and, not coincidentally, he would raise taxes on the wealthy. That is problem solving right there. True, Trump also wants to pump up military spending and is therefore also disqualified, but he’s better than Bush.
Did anyone else see W2! on the first new Colbert? His answer as to what his greatest policy difference vs. his brother was that he’d try harder to balance the budget.
Until he can come up with a forthright answer to the Iraq question (or, worse, if he already has and this is it), he’s not crossing the finish line.
Trump is a bull in a china shop who cannot be controlled, which is a big problem for the establishment. Also, I am not at all convinced Trump wants the responsibilities of the president. Oh, he may want to be president, but only because he’d consider it the ultimate win. I think Trump believes he’d be able to Frank Underwood his way through the job.
On the other hand, I don’t believe Bush has a chance in Hell against Hillary but, other than Trump, the Republicans have no bench.
Please keep your bull outside the china shop
No bulls allowed, that’s where they stop
It’s the rule, the way it’s always been
Your bull cannot come in!
-Beethoven’s Wig
Well, it was a bit more critical than that: he said his brother failed to control spending. Wars are spending. 
Never mind “not-Bush” – the question is whether Bush can get anywhere as the party establishment’s favorite not-Trump.
Bush is running behind Trump and Carson even in Florida. 
I agree. Trump’s flipped the script, shot the Establishment plot. Bush, Rubio, and Walker are fighting to be the Establishment version of the not-Trump. (Carson’s a totally different kind of not-Trump. Cruz is hoping to be Trump 2.0 if Trump 1.0 falters.)
That graph seems to have him dead even with Carson.
True, but Bush is at 18% with a 17% in the early-mid August Q-poll and a 19% in the FL Times-Union poll at the beginning of September. Carson’s gone from 11% to 25%.
You’ve got to ask: is the difference for Carson sampling error around an apparent mean of 18%, or is it that Carson’s support is increasing? I’m going with the latter. Especially because if you scroll down, there’s another Times-Union poll at the beginning of August to compare with. They have Carson at 8% at the beginning of August.
Feh. I’m still not buying into this stuff. We were all saying Romney was dead this time four years ago as a sequence of ever-shriller comedy candidates took the GOP polling lead.
No we weren’t, most of us believed Romney was a shoe in the whole time. That was what we thought about Bush too, but he just isn’t very good at campaigning. I just don’t see him managing to pull it off at this point.
We were?
(Ninja’d!)
I can remember thinking that about McCain eight years ago, though.
Hey, I like Houndmouthtoo!
Been one of my favorite songs this summer. 
W2! keeps tripping over his own shoelaces.
It’s morning in England!
I watched Colbert interview Bush and he came off as weak, nervous and looking for approval. I saw no evidence of intelligence or charisma, which I think are two important qualities here.
He also seems to be bought and paid for by the usual suspects, running on a platform of tax cuts for the top 1%.
His last name is severely tarnished and it would quite frankly look absurd with a third Bush as president in what is supposed to be the worlds largest democracy.
I frankly don’t see the appeal at all. To me he’s a weaker version of Romney at best. I don’t think he can energize the base nor do I think he can win any debates no matter who the Dem candidate is.
Second-largest.
I thought Bush was a shoo-in for the nomination. Let’s face it, he started organizing at least four years ago. He had the endorsements and the money, tons of money. The only thing he forgot- figuring out why he was running. What does he stand for? What are his passions? This far in, he appears to stand for nothing and have no passion. His tax plan is nothing more than recycled and supercharged trickle-down economics. He seems to be at least 20 years behind the times on a variety of issues. So maybe I was wrong about him being the nominee.