Jeb Bush needed a debate touchdown. He didn't come close.

Reading Eagle ^ | 10/29/15 | AP

[jimbo123]

Jeb Bush needed a touchdown. Instead, he was plagued by a series of false starts.

The former Florida governor entered Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate with little margin for error in a race that has spiraled out of his control. He needed to make things right. But time and again, he failed to capitalize on the opportunities he created for himself.

"I do like Jeb Bush," tweeted conservative blogger Erick Erickson. "He is a good person. But he needs to start thinking about his future now."

Early in the debate, a moderator questioned Bush's friend-turned-rival Marco Rubio about the mounting criticism he has received for being chronically absent from his duties as a U.S. senator. For weeks, Bush has been jabbing at Rubio by calling for members of Congress who don't do their job to have their pay docked. This was his moment to go for a knockout blow.

"Could I bring something up here, because I'm a constituent of the senator and I helped him and I expected that he would do constituent service, which means that he shows up to work," Bush interjected after Rubio shrewdly blamed a media bias for singling him out unfairly in a way he said Democratic senators who ran for president didn't face. Bush added, "Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term, and you should be showing up to work."

Rubio came prepared with a counterattack that deflated Bush's offensive, citing the former Florida governor comparing himself to John McCain circa 2008. "You know how many votes John McCain missed when he was carrying out that furious comeback that you're now modeling after?" asked Rubio.

[Paladin2]

Yeb! needs to go supervise the building of his new cottage at the fam compound.

[hadaclueonce]

His fantasy Football team must be one of those “cool things.”

[DoodleDawg]

I don’t think he really got off the bench.

[V_TWIN]

Didn’t watch much at all but I did hear jeb got off on some fantasy football thing and got slapped down. Didn’t sound good for him at all so I guess the death spiral continues.

[Jewbacca]

Jeb is the little rich kid who expected to be made quarterback bc daddy was important.

No hustle

[mazda77]

Sure Rubio made a great point about the media bias on this issue, but how in the world does he think he can justify his work record by citing Kerry, Obama, et al?

As far as I am concerned, if he justifies his record to those Democrats, then he executed a field goal attempt by kicking it through the Texas Stadium roof but it actually went backwards and went through the goal posts behind him. Spectacular but it doesn’t count.

As for JEB, geez what an embezzle, what an ultra-maroon. Although I wouldn’t trust Christie as far as I could throw him, he was like a death star attack on the moronic fantasy football question. Tippie-toes JEB only has a name but thinks he has a crown.

http://www.nonstick.com/audio/soundsource/Bugs_Bunny/ltbb_084.mp3

[taxcontrol]

Continuing the football analogy, he didn’t even make positive yardage.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Sacked and gave up a safety...

[ontap]

Actually the best football comparison is Jeb got the ball and ran the wrong direction!!!

[arthurus]

If Bush had abjured attacking any other Republican candidate and had merely stuck to enunciating his own goals, even in his lackluster way, he would still be the presumed Nominee at the end of it all. He is throwing stumbling blocks under the feet of the Gope that wants to nominate him and is repeatedly skewing the rules to shut out any other candidate regardless of primary votes. The one thing he does not need is to become a perceived embarrassment to the Gope.

[arthurus]

If Bush had abjured attacking any other Republican candidate and had merely stuck to enunciating his own goals, even in his lackluster way, he would still be the presumed Nominee at the end of it all. He is throwing stumbling blocks under the feet of the Gope that wants to nominate him and is repeatedly skewing the rules to shut out any other candidate regardless of primary votes. The one thing he does not need is to be perceived as an embarrassment by the Gope. He may have engendered that perception, finally with this CNBC performance.

[Eroteme]

The one thing he does not need is to become a perceived embarrassment to the Gope.

Too late to be talking about that in future tense. Jeb's gone well past embarrassment territory into being a security risk for the GOPe.

Jeb is toast. Which is too bad, since he so reliably spills the beans on what's inside the Trojan Horse that's rolled in front of us every election cycle by the establishment, big government oligarchs. I'd actually like to see him stay in the race for awhile, burn through donor class cash, and continue to unwittingly serve the conservative cause by being the face of the GOPe.

[arthurus]

We will see if he is finished by whether the gope moneybags transfer their support to Rubio or rather less likely, to Christie. I don’t think it matters whether Bush stays in the game or not. The non gope candidate that finally has the most primary delegates has to be truly overwhelming to dissuade the Gope from giving the nomination to its candidate. That is why I hope there is only one Conservative candidate still running after New Hampshire, preferably Trump or perhaps Cruz or best- Trump and Cruz as a team.