Jeb Bush's comeback tour sounds like a therapy session

Chicago Tribune ^ | 11/4/15 | Philip Rucker

[jimbo123]

Jeb Bush sat relaxed on a plush couch aboard his luxury "Jeb Can Fix It" bus as it rode here on Tuesday night, musing with reporters about his shortcomings.

"I've learned to accept the simple fact that I'm imperfect under God's watchful eye," the Republican presidential candidate said. "I don't have a self-esteem problem, and I don't have an overstated-worth problem. . . . The adversity I turn into opportunity. It's an obstacle to jump over. It's an opportunity to get better."

The next morning in Manchester, after a child asked what it was like to grow up the son of a president, Bush told a room full of kids that his father's approval weighed on him. "All he had to do was say, 'I'm disappointed in you,' and it would send me in a deep, spiraling depression," he said.

Bush is suddenly campaigning as if he's in a therapy session, wounded and wrestling with his identity both as a political performer and as heir to the Bush family dynasty. On a comeback tour here this week to rehabilitate his sputtering candidacy, Bush wore his emotions on his sleeve and volunteered introspective interpretations of why he wasn't winning.

Ten months ago, Bush was the ready-set-go candidate - the one many Republicans could most easily imagine in the Oval Office. Now, he is an awkward aspirant humbled by his own mistakes and miscalculations - not to mention months of Donald Trump's "low energy" taunts - and searching for his currency in a conservative movement that has moved on from the Bushes.

[Moonman62]

A lot of people and organizations have already placed large down payments on Jeb.