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The Tuesday panel of MSNBC’s Morning Joe gave Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush low marks for his performance at Monday night’s town hall discussion. New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters said Bush was “stunningly inarticulate,” and read out one particularly wooden answer Bush gave. “Uh, my dad is quite possibly the most perfect man alive, so it’s very hard of me to be critical of him. In fact, I got a t-shirt that says, uh, at the Jeb swag store that says, I’m the uh, I’m the, uh, ‘My dad’s the greatest man alive. If you don’t like it, I’ll...

Wonkish and mealy-mouthed, Jeb needs to start riling up his supporters—before Donald Trump wins them all over. To hear Jeb Bush tell it, he’s right where he wants to be, the “joyful tortoise” in the race who doesn’t want to say “outrageous things that turns people off to the conservative message.” At the Koch Brothers’ GOP donor convocation in Dana Point, Calif., over the weekend, Bush waxed confident about the campaign strategy he’s following, including the $120 million war chest he’s spent six months amassing. “I mean, this is a long haul,” Bush said. But many GOP voters don’t seem...

<p>Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has no apologies for using a network of political committees to out-raise his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.</p> <p>“You are officially certified as the $120 million man,” Politico’s Mike Allen said to Bush during an on-stage interview at a summit of GOP mega-donors.</p>

A new National Journal survey of “Republican insiders” finds that 57 percent of these political professionals think Donald Trump will bow out of the Presidential race before the Iowa Caucuses. This survey probably says more about the state of the Republican political class than anything about the 2016 race or Republican voters. Interestingly, 65 percent of “Democrat insiders” believe Trump will compete in the Iowa Caucuses in February next year. The survey results could easily be dismissed as both groups answering what they hope will happen. Some Republican campaign professionals offered comments beyond the question: “No meteor or political candidate...

Just a day after allegations reemerged that Donald Trump raped his ex-wife, Ivana Trump, the bombastic billionaire’s former spouse played down the controversy, saying that the two are still “the best of friends.” *snip* “Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and are very proud of. I have nothing but fondness for Donald and wish him the best of luck on his campaign,” she said. “Incidentally, I think he would make an incredible president,” Ivana Trump, who divorced her husband in 1992, added.

Late Monday night, The Daily Beast published a report about Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana and her accusations against her former husband. In a deposition from their divorce, revealed in a book published in 1993, Ivana accused the real estate mogul and now Republican presidential candidate of “violent assault" and "rape," though not in the "criminal sense." *snip* "I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know,”...

Ivana Trump once accused the real estate tycoon of ‘rape,’ although she later clarified: not in the ‘criminal sense.’ Donald Trump introduced his presidential campaign to the world with a slur against Mexican immigrants, accusing them of being “rapists” and bringing crime into the country. “I mean somebody’s doing it!…Who’s doing the raping?” Donald Trump said, when asked to defend his characterization. It was an unfortunate turn of phrase for Trump—in more ways than one. Not only does the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination have a history of controversial remarks about sexual assault, but as it turns out,...

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump said Sunday that leaders of the Republican National Committee (RNC) are warming up to his campaign just days after he blasted the party leaders and threatening during an exclusive interview with The Hill to run as a third-party candidate. “They’ve been really nice over the last few days, they’re starting to see what’s happening,” Trump said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper.” “They viewed me as an outsider I guess, and now they’re starting to view me not as an outsider because I’m leading in all the polls,” Trump said, pointing to a...

(CNN) —The Republican National Committee has a message for candidates like Donald Trump: No more name-calling. That's what the party's chief strategist and communications director Sean Spicer said on CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday. "I understand it's going to be the nature of any primary for folks to discuss the differences between themselves on policy issues, and I think that's fine," Spicer said. "The name calling, however, needs to stop." Spicer added: "We have got to remember what Ronald Reagan taught us, his 11th commandment, 'Thou shall not speak ill of another Republican.'" Spicer didn't point his comments directly at...

The first Republican presidential debate is approaching — Aug. 6 in Cleveland — and GOP candidates who are likely to miss the cut for the nighttime debate are stepping up criticism of the system.

Donald Trump, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Friday he sometimes identifies more as a Democrat when pressed to explain previous statements that the economy generally does better under Democrats than Republicans. "I identify with some things as a Democrat," Trump said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" when pressed about the comments from 2004, adding that "generally speaking" he was "never a Bush fan." ADVERTISEMENT "When the economy crashed so horribly under George Bush because of mistakes they made having to do with banking and lots of other things, I don't think the Democrats would have done that," Trump said....

Speaker John Boehner twice stopped short of declaring the House would cut off all government funding to Planned Parenthood, and said he would rely on the results of a pair of congressional investigations to guide his decision. Two videos allegedly show Planned Parenthood officials discussing sales of tissue and organs from aborted fetuses. Boehner said he would wait for the House Energy and Commerce and Judiciary committees to finish their investigations before announcing a response. …

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/07/breaking-gop-strategists-plot-to-ban-donald-trump-from-debates/

After a few days of vacation, I wondered whether the Donald Trump phenomenon would have burnt itself out somewhat, as it did four years ago in a summer fizzle. Instead, Trump’s polling has strengthened nearly to the same level as in the spring of 2011 among Republican primary voters. So why is Trump picking this time to threaten to leave the GOP? The Hill’s exclusive interview with the mogul this morning includes a demand for fairness from the RNC from Trump, with an explicit warning that Trump may consider a third-party run: “The RNC has not been supportive. They were...

More than 100 people turned out to hear Jeb Bush campaign on Tuesday. Bush told the crowd the Republican party will not win the election if it doesn't become more inclusive and spoke to the crowd about hope. "This will be the greatest time to be alive. I wake up each day thinking that," Bush said. He talked about creating change. "A Republican president, and I hope to be that Republican president, will actually, fasten your seat belts here; this may be a radical idea, may have to talk to somebody who doesn't agree with them," Bush said.

The experienced, accessible and disciplined candidate gets sarcastic in South Carolina. Jeb Bush said he’d give John Kasich a shout-out from the debate stage if the Ohio governor doesn’t make the cut. He publicly lamented the media’s obsession with Donald Trump. He even mocked the notion that his family lineage means he’s been waiting his whole life to become president. “It’s not like I’ve been kind of in some test tube waiting for my chance now, the third Bush,” he quipped. “I’ve actually had a life.” The 200 people who showed up here Tuesday afternoon got a glimpse of a...

Jeb Bush on Monday returned to the Florida capital to deliver a speech slamming lobbyists as a corrosive influence on public policy, and railing on the practice of public officials becoming professional influence peddlers. The jeremiad may have come as a shock to Tallahassee's government officials-turned-lobbyists whom Bush enlisted to help him sculpt his gubernatorial agenda, and who are now helping bankroll his Republican presidential campaign. In his speech, the former Florida governor said that as president he will push to ban lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for six years after they leave government. He decried the fact that before he...

Monday marks the first in a series of speeches by Jeb Bush “that will outline what his priorities will be as president, beginning with taking on Mount Washington and reforming the way D.C. works” — this according to his campaign. The inaugural speech itself is titled “Taking on Mount Washington,” in fact. While it is an interesting metaphor, the tone and tenor of it also could mark a change in demeanor for Mr. Bush which could help him fend off critics who frame his campaign as inconsequential or tepid.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may be “closest to Obama in his view on foreign policy,” as Dr. Charles Krauthammer put it on Tuesday, but he is facing stiff competition from Jeb Bush in that category. The former Florida governor praised Obama’s initial negotiating efforts with Iran on Tuesday, telling an audience in Denver that “we need to give him credit” for “bringing other people along and making it tougher.” The puzzling statement suggests the influence of James A. Baker III on the Bush campaign. Baker, a former Secretary of State, was the co-chair of the Iraq Study Group in 2006,...

The ancient Romans coined the phrase "dog days" based on the period of time that the brightest star (Sirius, the Dog Star) rose and set in conjunction with the sun. The Romans believed that Sirius radiated heat to the Earth, causing the hottest part of the year as it traveled with the sun. The date range for the annual "dog-day" period varies based on the source. The Old Farmer's Almanac refers to the 40-day period that begins July 3 and ends August 11. The 1552 Book of Common Prayer refers to the period from July 6 to August 17. Many...