Free Republic

Three things about Donald Trump have now become clear to the Republican establishment: 1) He might not implode before people start voting for president next year. 2) He could actually wind up as the Republican nominee for president. -snip- Right to Rise raised more than $103 million in the first six months of this year. It spent - as I mentioned above - $28 million on ads. Let's say the organization has spent another $15 million on fundraising, consulting fees and other miscellaneous costs. And let's assume, just for the sake of this argument, that Right to Rise hasn't raised...

Was Jeb Bush SuperPAC's big advertising push in early autumn the least effective multi-million dollar advertising campaign ever? In mid-September, Jeb Bush's SuperPAC, Right to Rise PAC, unleashed $24 million in advertising, mostly in key early primary states - $6 million in Iowa, $12 million in New Hampshire, $4.7 million in South Carolina, and the remainder elsewhere. Using the RealClearPolitics average as our measuring stick, Bush moved from 4.8 percent in Iowa on September 15 to... 4.8 percent today. He got as high as 7 percent on October 20.

Donald Trump has re-established his commanding lead of the Republican presidential race in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. If anything, the poll shows that Trump's surge seems to be strong and possibly getting stronger. As the Post points out, the poll comes after a "tumultuous period that has included terrorist attacks in Paris, calls for stepped-up efforts to combat Islamic State militants, a backlash against accepting refugees from Syria, and two Republican debates..." Trump's sizable lead puts him ahead of the popular but controversial Ben Carson. Trump leads the field with 32 percent support among registered Republicans and Republican-leaning...

A couple of new national polls have come out over the weekend. They are very similar: Both polls show the race to be between four candidates divided into two distinct tiers. What is most telling, though, is the way that Jeb Bush has found a comfy home at around 5%. Via the RCP average

Donald Trump has fended off a challenge by Ben Carson in the early voting state of Iowa and maintained his lead elsewhere, according to the latest wave of the YouGov/CBS News Battleground Poll. 30% likely Republican caucus goers in Iowa name Trump as their choice for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, receives 19% support, behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas who receives 21%. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida receives 11%. In a YouGov/CBS News poll last month, Trump and Carson were tied with 27% support each among voters in the Hawkeye State. Other polls even found...

It's still early with the first votes in Iowa and New Hampshire almost three months away, but this has now become a legitimate question to ask: Has the GOP presidential candidates' Super PAC experiment failed? And failed badly? Consider some of the evidence: Jeb Bush's Right to Rise Super PAC has aired $15.5 million in TV ads so far -- more than any other '16 entity -- and those ads haven't moved the polling needle; Both Scott Walker and Rick Perry focused more on building up their Super PACs than their actual hard-money campaigns, and both men are no longer...

This closed-door summit for Jeb Bush’s richest donors was meant to be a pep rally, a reunion for loyalists eager to celebrate the family legacy with two former presidents. But as George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush draw supporters together under gray skies and unrelenting rains, the gathering has become a rescue operation for a candidate who looks unable to meet the expectations of the family brand. “The patient is either in intensive care and in need of some good doctors who can save him or being put into hospice and we’re going to see a slow death," said...

Jeb Bush did his best to reassure his wealthiest donors over a Texas barbecue on Sunday, telling them that his Republican presidential campaign is trimming its costs and correcting itself like any business. -snip- And while some pundits are already writing off Jeb Bush's chances of winning the Republican nomination, a number of major donors and Bush operatives interviewed by The Hill said they were confident he could turn the polls around by the time votes are cast in primaries next February and March. A number of these donors and operatives say they have faith that the pro-Bush super-PAC Right...

HOUSTON — Right to Rise USA, the super PAC supporting former Florida governor Jeb Bush's campaign for president, is considering deploying ground staff to key states after focusing most heavily on running television ads so far. It's a notable strategic consideration that comes as Bush's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has struggled to gain traction in early-voting states and as it makes moves to curtail costs in what began as a sprawling operation.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s political stock has fallen sharply over the past few months. The debate now taking place among Republicans is whether that stock is undervalued or a fair reading of the current shape of his campaign. The latest quarterly financial reports brought new questions for the candidate who began the campaign with assets none of his rivals could match. He raised barely more in the third quarter than he did in the second — even though his second-quarter fundraising amounted to just 16 days of activity. His average daily fundraising dropped sharply from one quarter to the...

In April 1988, the man who will try to sell Jeb Bush to America sat on a panel hosted by Campaigns and Elections magazine to discuss the “Secrets of Great Media.” Mike Murphy and his then-business partner Alex Castellanos were rising stars in the Republican firmament, two young guns who were reimagining the contours of campaign messaging. -snip- “To create media that is great in elections, you have to obviously respect the power of the medium,” Murphy began, peering out from behind a pair of 1980s large-frame eyeglasses. “Television is a very, very powerful thing.” Murphy has mastered messaging across...

Donald Trump on Saturday sought to give Jeb Bush a black eye over a black hand. Trump wailed on the former Florida governor for a Photoshopped picture in a campaign leaflet sent out by a pro-Bush super PAC that shows him with a black left hand, and his body apparently super-imposed on a picture of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Jeb Bush has a Photoshopped photo for an ad which gives him a black left hand and much different looking body. Jeb just can’t get it right!” the real-estate mogul said of his rival for the 2016 Republican nomination, who he has...

Sad Little !Jeb Plane: Bush Super Pac Attempts To Troll Trump, Gives Former Governor A Black Man’s Hand In Mailer. A Super PAC backing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president with more than $100 million is officially embarrassing itself. Just one day after the Bush Super PAC Right to Rise USA flew a tiny plane with a banner attached to the end of it over 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s Mobile, Alabama rally, the geniuses backing yet another Bush for president appear to have photoshopped a black man’s hand onto the former Florida governor. -snip- “Moments before Trump was...