The Bush blame game begins

Politico ^ | 1/21/16 | ANNA PALMER and ELI STOKOLS

[jimbo123]

With Jeb struggling, supporters, staff and donors start pointing the finger at the super PAC's chief, Mike Murphy.

They think he wasted money on everything from an iPad-sized video mailer to direct mail for donors in states that don't yet matter. They think his attacks on Marco Rubio are doing more harm than good. And they worry that, at the end, all he will have accomplished is the destruction of the Bush family brand.

The big-money supporters fueling Jeb Bush's super PAC have found their boogey man: Mike Murphy, a sharp-witted, Twitter-obsessed veteran GOP ad man who runs Right to Rise.

If Bush's campaign ends with anything other than the GOP nomination, blame is certain to be widespread. But that donors and GOP operatives are already sniping at Murphy before the first votes are cast demonstrates the depth of frustration and displeasure with the Bush-world loyalist.

-snip-

POLITICO interviewed nearly two dozen Right to Rise donors and Bush supporters, and all blamed Murphy for a super PAC strategy that has failed to boost their struggling candidate. Multiple advisers to the Right to Rise super PAC concede privately that the $40 million spent on positive ads aimed at telling Bush's story has yielded no tangible dividends.

Among the many and varied complaints, several Republicans close to the Bush campaign have questioned the PAC's decision to let John Kasich own the airwaves in New Hampshire this fall, allowing the Ohio governor to get a foothold in a state where Bush must perform well to keep his White House bid alive. Others faulted Right to Rise for spending so much money on telling Bush's story and not changing tactics immediately after Donald Trump entered the race and began stoking the groundswell of anti-establishment sentiment and defined Bush--lastingly--as "low energy."

[Paine in the Neck]

I just hope the destruction extends to Gee Oh Pee's next TX campaign. We need a strong primary candidate against "The Little Brown One" [®- GHWB] before he gets to the next rung of the TX electoral ladder.

[rrrod]

he he he

[MayflowerMadam]

Please, God; don’t let that happen.

[mellow velo]

They haven't driven the stake through Jeb's heart, yet. (figuratively speaking, of course) Nor Rubio's, either. Trump is still riding high & Cruz has been on rocky terrain these past couple of weeks. However, if both of their campaigns somehow implode down the road, I fear the establishment will still try and drag Jeb across the finish line.

How else to explain why he's still in although his campaign is hemorrhaging tons of $$?! Cast my 5th vote for a Bush? Not gonna do it.

[Buckeye McFrog]

It’s not Murphy nor his “failed strategy”.

It’s the simple fact that YOUR CANDIDATE FLAT-OUT SUCKS!!!

[bassmaner]

Cast my 5th vote for a Bush? Not gonna do it.

Wouldn't be prudent.

[JoeFromSidney]

All of these things may be true, but ultimately the problem is the Jebster himself. He's just not Presidential timber.