JEB SHOULD PROBABLY WITHDRAW. I DON’T SEE HOW IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN FOR HIM. Bush supporters pick up the pieces after disappointing debate.

eb Bush’s supporters are struggling to explain the candidate’s listless debate performance, as baffled investors ponder the way forward.

Top fundraisers and donors aren’t setting their hair on fire just yet, but in interviews on Thursday, they said they were frustrated and puzzled by Bush’s wilting act under the bright lights at the debate on Wednesday night.

“It’s frustrating for those of us who are supporters of his, those of us who know him,” said one of Bush’s largest donors. “I mean, I’ve seen in these meetings with the smaller groups, he’s unbelievable. It’s just sort of weird.”
Bush was outmaneuvered by his former protégé and whiffed on softballs that his rivals clobbered.

The former Florida governor tepidly followed a debate moderator’s lead in attacking Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for missing votes in the Senate. The moment was a long time in the making, and could have announced Bush’s reemergence as an authoritative voice in the race while diminishing his chief rival for the establishment mantle.

Instead, Rubio won the encounter.

“The only reason you’re saying this is because we’re running for the same position and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you,” Rubio said, earning big applause from the crowd.

Bush didn’t have a comeback and he never really recovered.

Jeb, like Hillary, thinks he’s entitled to the nomination and doesn’t really seem to want to work for it. Unlike Hillary, though, he didn’t successfully clear the field of rivals before things started.