Jeb Bush Squanders His Candidacy

The Republican TV debates: The candidates still owe the public the details of their economic policies, Marco Rubio trumps, Jeb Bush still looks pale. The conservative solution for 2016 is to stick with that same old song: lower taxes and less government.

What are the 2015 Republican presidential candidates’ economic goals? More growth, lower taxes and less government. And how do they intend to achieve those goals? After the third Republican presidential debate, no one is the wiser — despite the fact that the debate in Boulder, Colorado, was touted to be about economic policy.

The two-hour program was moderated by CNBC host Carl Quintanilla, who boastfully described the debate series as “essentially a job interview with the American people.” Unfortunately, the trio around John Harwood appeared to be poorly prepared for the interview. The questions were seldom sufficiently focused, and when they were, they were easily avoided. Some were able to answer with outright lies that went unchallenged.

Ted Cruz complained about the skyrocketing inflation rate — which doesn’t even exist. Donald Trump denied accusing Marco Rubio of being “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator” due to his proximity to the technology industry — even though he put that in writing, as was later pointed out. Carly Fiorina falsely claimed that the recession had resulted in a 92 percent unemployment rate among women. And Chris Christie brought up what he called a “Ferguson Effect” that was responsible for an increase in violence in protests against police brutality. There is no evidence that such an effect exists.

Jeb Bush & George W. Bush

But in the ideology-ridden sphere of American politics, facts are just side issues to ploys for sympathy and the importance of a presidential image.

By these standards, Jeb Bush may well have reached the end of his candidacy: Prior to the debate, this member of the Bush political dynasty was seen as beleaguered, but seemed to be less committed than he was overwhelmed. He had a grasp of the legalization of certain games of chance since he was undefeated in Fantasy Football. He accused his young opponent Marco Rubio of missing many Senate votes and having adopted a three-day “French work week.” Rubio responded dryly by saying, “Someone convinced you attacking me is going to help you.”

Even prior to the debate, the prediction was that Rubio’s chances would improve. That seems very likely now. The son of Cuban exiles repeatedly stressed his modest background, and wisely linked it with the fate of many small businesses that struggle from paycheck to paycheck.

Donald Trump’s narrative is the exact opposite of Rubio’s: The real estate tycoon often refers to himself as a fiendishly good businessman, but never reveals the details of his business plan. His job creation strategy? His claim that “I created tens of thousands of jobs.” As president the claim would be millions of jobs. Plus, he promises, “I’ll bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places.” He remains true to his vagueness and should hope that that plays no part in the opinion polls, as long as he rakes in the benefits of being considered an outsider and self-starter.