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Jeb Bush, trailing badly in polls here and itching to get to New Hampshire, used his farewell Iowa campaign event to ask caucus-goers to do what he couldn't: Stop Donald Trump. "You have a chance to define the next stage of this race," Bush told a ballroom full of supporters in an Embassy Suites hotel on Monday afternoon. "I'm counting on you and I trust you." The former Florida governor has essentially conceded Iowa, where polls show him in the low single digits. Bush will not be holding a caucus night party, instead leaving the state this afternoon for New...

In his last town hall event in Iowa before Monday night's caucuses, Jeb Bush implored a crowd here to not choose "just a big blowhard" as its candidate. In remarks to a packed, sweaty ballroom at an Embassy Suites hotel downtown here, the former Florida governor told a crowd of out-of-state volunteers, foreign press and political junkies that demonstrated competence and experience is a better option than anger and an unspecific uplifting message - shots at front-runners Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. The setting gave Mr. Bush the enthusiasm he has often seemed to lack on the campaign trail. He...

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This look at Jeb Bush's chances and path to win the Republican presidential nomination is part of a series here on The Fix looking at all the top candidates. Where does he stand in the polls? The former Florida governor began the race as the odds-on Republican front-runner, and the early polling backed that up. He led most every national poll conducted in late 2014 and traded leads with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, among others, early in 2015. Then, the race actually began. Bush launched his campaign in mid-June, and by mid-July began a steady decline. While he topped out...

If Donald Trump ends up on stage this July formally accepting the GOP presidential nomination, don't be surprised if everyone from Washington Republicans to Twitter conservatives gathers outside the convention arena in Cleveland to burn Mike Murphy in effigy. -snip- Perhaps unsurprisingly, some disgruntled donors have struggled to keep their displeasure with Murphy to themselves. As one nameless Bush backer grumbled to Politico during the latest round of venting in the media, "You might as well light all this money on fire." -snip- Now, with the spectre of the Trumpocalypse looming over the GOP on the eve of the Iowa...

There was a time when Jeb Bush was considered the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Now down to 2% in the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll, Mr. Bush spent a Saturday afternoon campaign stop lamenting his inability to convince voters of his political arguments.

In 2014, the Northeast Utilities Company in Connecticut -- now known as Eversource Energy -- allegedly laid off around 200 of its American tech workers and replaced them with low-wage foreigners admitted on H-1B guest worker visas. Now a photo has emerged depicted the workers' final, silent patriotic protest -- silent because the workers reportedly were forced to sign non-disparagement agreements to shield their employer. The image depicts the display of American flags around cubicles of the company's IT department -- circulated by trade magazine ComputerWorld -- before the Americans were replaced with foreign labor. The powerful image seems to...

A Jeb Bush town hall is somewhat more sedate than a Trump or Cruz event. Voters are attentive and respectful. They're not especially angry. They didn't come for insults and bluster. "Governor Bush... you are the most reasonable, responsible, respectful and resilient candidate in either party... I hope common sense will prevail," Harrison Cass Jr., 67, a retired school superintendent from Waterloo, told him during a Q&A. "Are you caucusing for me? Lemme give you a hug." And Bush walked over and hugged him. -snip- He defended his view that the Republican Party needs to be more tactful and welcoming...

Of all the many things said about Donald Trump, what was said by Roger Ailes, head of the Fox News Channel, said it all in just two words: “Grow up!” It is amazing how many people have been oblivious to this middle-aged man’s spoiled brat behavior, his childish boastfulness about things he says he is going to do, and his petulant response to every criticism with ad hominem replies.

Paul Ryan is hosting a fundraising retreat in Palm Beach, Florida this week that is drawing a number of major donors - in addition to the House speaker's 2012 running mate. Mitt Romney was among those who addressed the confab on Thursday, according to two sources present. Also speaking were two former 2016 GOP contenders, Scott Walker and Lindsey Graham. The group gathered at the posh Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. Unlike his predecessor John Boehner, Ryan is not known for his prodigious fundraising skills. But he is taking steps to expand his network. The new House speaker recently...

Nothing like Donald Trump has ever hit a major American political party: A blow-dried celebrity gleefully smashing one modern Republican certainty after the other. As he defies his own party on tax orthodoxy, on healthcare and on bending a knee to Roger Ailes, he's exposed the GOP establishment as virtually powerless over its own nominating process. His rise has now created a split so deep that it's not clear how the party is going to recover. Some conservatives are trying to crush his candidacy, others are finally embracing him, and they're all lobbing grenades at each other. So is this...

With Donald J. Trump absent from the debate stage, critics had a chance to focus on the rest of the Republican field. While the verdicts varied, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was seen as starting strong but fading late, while Senator Marco Rubio of Florida had his moments but grew testy at times when faced with tough questions. Some thought Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, had one of his most energetic performances, while the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson barely registered.

The winner of Thursday's Republican debate was. . .Jeb Bush? This is the first time in the GOP presidential race in which the candidate who was the most credible on the issues also won the debate. Maybe Donald Trump's absence gave Bush a confidence boost - or at least permitted him to get a word in edgewise. Perhaps Bush, with little to lose at this point, relaxed. Or maybe he is just more polished after months of campaigning. Whatever the reason, he spoke with more conviction and dominated the stage at several points in the debate. And he used some...

Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer said after Thursday night's Fox News Republican debate that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) might have come away a big winner. Speaking with Fox moderator Megyn Kelly shortly after the debate ended, Krauthammer said the former Florida governor turned in a strong performance - possibly the best of the night out of all the candidates on stage. "I thought it was, interestingly, the best night that Jeb had in all of the debates," Krauthammer said. "And I might even say I think he might have had the best night of the group in this debate."

About 15 years ago, I said something nasty on CNN about Donald Trump's hair. I can't now remember the context, assuming there was one. In any case, Trump saw it and left a message the next day. "It's true you have better hair than I do," Trump said matter-of-factly. "But I get more pussy than you do." At the time, I'd never met Trump and I remember feeling amused but also surprised he'd say something like that. Now the pattern seems entirely familiar. The message had all the hallmarks of a Trump attack: shocking, vulgar and indisputably true. Not everyone...

Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager for 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, exposed a blatant conflict of interest on Wednesday that the Fox News Channel has been hiding for months. Lewandowski showed how Fox News has been hiding the fact that Fox News Channel Vice President Bill Sammon has a daughter working for the campaign of the Washington establishment-backed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). Sammon's daughter, Brooke Sammon, is Rubio's national press secretary, and obviously both have a vested interest in the success of the Rubio campaign and the demise of the other campaigns. CNN's Erin Burnett asked Lewandowski about Fox News's...

Mr. Trump’s warning appears to have worked, at least for now. Several influential leaders on the Republican National Committee withdrew plans to lower the nomination threshold and make it easier for other candidates to challenge Mr. Trump at the convention.

It's time to stop treating the election of the next president of the United States like a game show without serious consequences. After more than a year of constant fundraising, meaningless opinion polls and reckless rhetoric from so many candidates, voters finally will make their voices heard starting Monday in the Iowa caucuses and eight days later in the New Hampshire primary. For Republicans fighting for both the soul of their party and the White House, the best choice is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The Florida primary is not until March 15, and voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and...

The announcement from Donald Trump's campaign that the Republican frontrunner will "definitely not" partake in Thursday night's Fox News debate has sent shock waves throughout the nation’s political scene. At a press event Tuesday evening, Trump seemed to cite disparate treatment from the network as his reasoning for not participating. "What’s wrong over there, something’s wrong," Trump said of the "games" Roger Ailes and the network are "playing." In asking the question of "what’s wrong over there?" Trump has shined a spotlight on one of Washington's best kept secrets: namely, Fox's role via its founder Rupert Murdoch in pushing an...

Jeb Bush ridiculed Donald Trump for planning to skip Thursday's GOP debate here, although he's betting Trump still winds up on the stage. Literally. "I've got a $20 bet he shows up," Bush said during a town hall with employees of Nationwide insurance at the company's headquarters here Wednesday afternoon. Asked by reporters after the event why he thinks Trump might go back on his promise to skip the seventh Republican debate, Bush said, "Because it's in his interest."