The 4 Percent Man: ‘Stuff Happens’; Bush sees lowest poll numbers as he explains verbal slip-up

Polizette ^ | October 3, 2015 | Keith Koffler

[2ndDivisionVet]

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush scored just 4 percent of the vote in the latest national GOP survey, a catastrophically low number that is sure to raise grave concern among the establishment donors who have invested millions in his success for the 2016 presidential race.

The poll, released Friday by the Pew Research Center, shows Bush slipping into sixth place behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is at 6 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Bush’s archrival for establishment backing, has twice Jeb’s support, with 8 percent. Rubio is tied with Fiorina, whose tally suggests the steam may have run out of the boomlet that accompanied her strong performance in last month’s GOP debate...

[2ndDivisionVet]

FULL TITLE: The 4 Percent Man: ‘Stuff Happens’ Bush sees lowest polling numbers to date as he explains verbal slip-up over Oregon shooting

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I love it! I pray the poll truly and accurately represents what is happening to Bush. The American people DO NOT want him. He is a lovely man, has proper relations with his family, is kind to his dog and will be just the same in private life where he belongs.

[ColdOne]

I wonder if he got any stuff in his big boy pants when he saw how low he is polling?

[vekzen]

The Bushies have done enormous damage to the conservative movement. His Dad walked back the Reagan Revolution and ended up losing to Clinton. His brother surrendered to the left and paved the way for Obama. How divorced from reality can Jeb and his minions be to expect frustrated conservative voters will vote for arguably the most left wing of all the Bushies?

[grania]

he (Jeb) is a lovely man...

You think? The arrogance of his thinking the nomination should be his in spite of low numbers for the $100 million man is mind-boggling. Anyone who is 6'3" tall who has to stand on his tiptoes to look tall has issues.

Has there been any indication whatsoever that he listens to English speaking US citizens? That what happened to Teri Schiavo isn't the best indicator of his character?

If he's a "lovely man", it sure hasn't come across.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

To close out, the one amusing feature of Bushes decline in the polls is his total lack of understanding of what is happening to him. HE IS NOT WANTED.

[Flick Lives]

Jeb is basically down at the background noise level in the poll.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Down there with Linda, Sweater Vest, Goober, Krispy Kreme and the rest of them.

[Frank_2001]

Hey, Establishment: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP. Get used to it!!!!!!!!

[rwoodward]

Low energy = Low polls

[apillar]

Glad to see the party base might be finally waking up, for the last two elections they told us we HAD to vote for the hand picked establishment candidate or we would lose, well we did and lost anyway, this time we’re saying, “Yeah, heard that tune before, not buying it again, lets try anti-establishment for a change.”

[rwoodward]

His best strategy is to not speak in public places. His poll numbers were better when we just knew his last name.

[Right2BareArms]

Jeb “Margin of Error” Bush

[Bratch]

“Stuff happens”: Left wets itself over Jeb Bush’s answer about crisis management after question on Oregon shooting

POSTED AT 6:01 PM ON OCTOBER 2, 2015 BY ALLAHPUNDIT

This reaction to the fake outrage over this fake controversy will be hard to top.

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@allahpundit Ah, reminds me of when Bush, unable to work the checkout scanner, served rubber turkey to Palin on her porch overlooking Russia — Dan Dast (@DastDn) October 2, 2015

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Watch the clip below to see what he means. It’s oddly edited, with Bush’s “stuff happens” comments sandwiched between two clips of his interaction with New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza after this nonsense had already blown up on Twitter. Here’s how Lizza first broke the news to the many hundreds of media types who follow him:

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In Greenville, South Carolina, Jeb Bush, arguing against calls for gun control after major tragedy, says, "stuff happens." — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) October 2, 2015

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That makes it sound like someone brought up the shooting and Bush responded by scratching his balls, belching, and replying with a sanitized version of “sh*t happens” for polite company.Jeb Bush is a callous monster. After conservatives started pounding away at Lizza, he eventually responded with this fuller transcript — but not before the “stuff happens” nontroversy had been picked up across mass media and, within an hour of it spreading, had even been presented to Obama for comment at his press conference. When the media wants to make a narrative happen, especially when a Republican presidential candidate is bearing the brunt of that narrative, it can gather and spin like a Category Five hurricane.

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Judge for yourself what Jeb was trying to say. Context is warning about passing gun laws in the wake of a tragedy. 

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) October 2, 2015

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“Heartbreaking,” “very sad,” and it’s perfectly clear that the “stuff happens” bit at the end isn’t meant to be dismissive but rather just a clumsy formulation of the idea that there’s not always a good government solution to every calamity. You’re not going to grab 300 million guns owned by law-abiding people, nor should you have the right to. If you want to do something meaningful about mass shootings, focus on getting help for mentally ill people who need it. You can hate the reality of that if you’re a lefty but you can’t accuse Bush of being callous if you’re intellectually honest, which is the real energy behind this alleged gaffe.

That said, though, I wonder how much support Bush will get from righties on this. The smart take on Kevin McCarthy’s Benghazi comments this week (especially on the left) was that they were a classic “Kinsley gaffe,” i.e. a moment when a politician accidentally tells the truth. The Benghazi Committee is nothing but a GOP hatchet job to take down the likely Democratic nominee! But that’s not actually what McCarthy said. His comments weren’t an admission that the Committee has no purpose beyond taking down Hillary Clinton, as the left would have you believe. His point was that the Committee had revealed significant wrongdoing by exposing Clinton’s private server shenanigans. It had in fact uncovered government malfeasance and the fact that Hillary’s polling has taken a dive ever since proves that the public thinks it’s significant. But McCarthy’s not getting much of a defense from righties because he’s a RINO and this “gaffe” is a useful bludgeon in trying to block him from succeeding Boehner. He’s getting hit hard on the left for supposedly exposing the Benghazi Committee as a political assassination squad and he’s getting hit hard on the right for being a doofus who just handed Team Hillary a golden soundbite for the general election. Both sides want to get McCarthy for very different reasons, neither of which have anything to do with the alleged offense given by his clumsy remarks, and so both sides pile on. The hurricane picks up speed because both sides have motives to keep it going.

So it’s not a Kinsley gaffe, it’s a — I’m not sure if there’s a name for a gaffe in which both sides feign outrage over something innocuous to take down a common enemy. But this “stuff happens” nonsense with Bush could be another example of it. The left sees a chance, created by “legitimate,” supposedly unbiased reporters like Lizza, to turn the screws against a well-funded contender for the GOP nomination. And the right sees a chance to turn the screws against a pro-amnesty RINO who’s standing in the way of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in the presidential sweepstakes. No one has an incentive to defend him so the “gaffe” becomes a fact of political life, even if ultimately it’ll dwindle into an argument that Bush, like McCarthy, just isn’t smooth enough in expressing himself to trust him with higher office. Narratives happen. Belch.

[Bluestocking]

At 4%, Jeb still has the ability to drop out of the race without losing every last ounce of dignity.

However, the last people in the world who would advise him to drop out are his very own advisors, since if he does so they’ll lose their jobs.

So he’ll probably be in until the very end.

[samtheman]

The Bushies have done enormous damage to the conservative movement. His Dad walked back the Reagan Revolution and ended up losing to Clinton. His brother surrendered to the left and paved the way for Obama. How divorced from reality can Jeb and his minions be to expect frustrated conservative voters will vote for arguably the most left wing of all the Bushies?

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All true.

[Kid Shelleen]

But we have to get behind La Tortuga because if Trump gets elected he will ruin the Republican Party /S

[bkopto]

Once the horse’s ass Yeb! finally bites the big one, who will the eGOP throw their support to? FioRINO or Rubio?

I believe it will be Rubio, the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

[Theodore R.]

I suspect that GHWB and Barbara are beside themselves over the polls this time, but like Churchill, they will never give up!

[rrrod]

oh nos!!!! poor lil jebbie!