JEB: WHAT WENT WRONG? “If there’s anything to be critical about in hindsight, it’s the original, pre-firewall conception of Jeb’s campaign. The flawed conceit of his candidacy was that Bush Legacy × Wonkish Technocrat + $100 million = 2016 GOP nomination. Now that might have been a can’t-miss formula for success circa 2006, but a decade later it appeared shaky to anyone who looked closely.

Or to put it another way, as NRO contributor Liam Donovon tweets, “assumptions of the strength of Jeb or even Mitt vastly underestimate the level of scar tissue left from McCain/Romney.”

Earlier: Trump as “Nemesis for the hubris of the George W. Bush years.”