Free Republic

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...

Longtime political strategist Karl Rove is warning Republicans not to nominate a presidential candidate that reflects the same "populist anger" that gave birth to the rise of Donald Trump. In his latest op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Rove explained the GOP will have two choices when delegates gather in Cleveland, Ohio, next July to determine which remaining Republican hopeful they wish to see challenge Democrats in the general election. "Will the party choose a nominee with a conservative agenda or one reflecting populist anger?" Rove wrote. "The two are hardly the same," he noted. "Conservative principles provide a winning...

What happens when a candidate whose greatest strength is the sense of inevitability surrounding him becomes something short of inevitable? That’s the question that is facing former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s presidential candidacy amid only so-so polling numbers nationally and in early-voting states and that is behind a fundraising operation premised on “shock and awe” but, to date, is producing mostly “awww.” -snip- Jeb Bush, of course, has long been given a pass on his candidate fundraising because his super PAC — Right to Rise — brought in more than $100 million over the first six months of the year,...