New Hampshire may be now or never for Jeb Bush
Politics
New Hampshire may be now or never for Jeb Bush
In a state whose motto is “Live Free or Die,” New Hampshire’s presidential primary Tuesday is do or die for Republican Jeb Bush: best your establishment rivals, or consider throwing in the towel. Bush’s campaign has long concluded the state is critical to his path to the nomination. Heading into Saturday night’s GOP debate, a strong finish in the first primary after last week’s Iowa caucuses, where he placed a disappointing sixth with 2.8 percent of the vote, is a political imperative.
I wouldn’t say desperation, but there’s serious concern…There’s nothing joyful about the situation he’s in now.
Professor Linda Fowler of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, an expert on U.S. elections
To bounce back after stumbles in the first two states would be a herculean task for the former governor of Florida, who is getting more attention as a poster boy for disastrous campaigning than a potential winner. Mired in single-digit support, squeezed into a crowded establishment lane with two governors including Chris Christie and Ohio’s John Kasich, and his measured tone overwhelmed by the loud rhetoric of the 2016 presidential race, Bush faces a steep climb out of irrelevance. That climb must begin tonight.
I don’t advise him, but if I gave him advice, I would say: ‘Why don’t you interrupt like the other people do’ (during debates).
Eager to stop the bleeding, the popular family matriarch Barbara Bush, 90, campaigned Friday with her second son in New Hampshire.
