Jeb Bush campaign shifting focus

Reports from the event indicate the refocused campaign message will center more on Bush’s ability to fix a broken Washington and an argument based on comparing the governor’s record with the resumes of his opponents.

“Jeb is going to win the Latino vote, which is essential to winning”, George W. Bush said.

Those sentiments were echoed Monday by the former president who said his brother is focused on running a positive campaign focused on the issues.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, left, poses for a photo with Army veteran Clint Jones after participating in the Libre Initiative’s policy forum series, “The Libre Forum: Unlimited Opportunities in a Free Society”, at the College of Southern Nevada in North Las Vegas Wednesday, October 21, 2015.

Trailing badly in the polls, reportedly slashing campaign payroll by 40 percent and scaling back on travel costs, Bush is now one of many middle-of-the-pack candidates in a wide GOP field, rather than the man Republicans would naturally gravitate to as they seek to win back the White House.

Sacramento GOP strategist Rob Stutzman tells me, “Jeb is a safe harbor for a lot of voters who don’t believe Hillary Clinton is what we need in the White House”. A lot of politics is relational. Can that person relate to me? “Given Jeb’s relationship with Columba and Columba herself, people will say he understands how I think”. The business mogul argued last Friday that Jeb Bush was incorrect to argue that his brother kept the US safe.

Like Bush, Rubio is also vying for the support of mainstream Republicans and the Hispanic vote. Even the conversation between the two brothers on Monday was opened to just one reporter, who shared notes with other reporters and agreed not to shoot video or take photographs.

“But joy!” quipped former President George W. Bush, finishing her sentence. If Bush thinks that calling out Trump for being an unreliable loudmouth is demonization, then he has no business on the campaign trail.

“There was never a complaint with the federal government”, said Jeb Bush, adding later: “We recovered faster than other states that had a hard time”.

Jeb Bush’s take: “The case study of leadership is how George responded to 9/11”.

“Put it in the campaign slogan, ‘A proven leader, ‘” he told the crowd of about 175 people.

George Bush suggested that Donald Trump would fade in the polls as the election nears, saying his brother “knows how to manage an administration”.

“I’ve met people along the journey who are losing loved ones due to their faith”, said Bush, speaking specifically about persecuted Christians in the Middle East. “In fact, Mosul, for 1,400, 1,500 years, communion was given in Mosul”. In particular, he’s spent his considerable early fundraising advantage building a ground game in states who won’t hold primaries for months rather than concentrating on building a firewall in New Hampshire. Many Republicans want their next president to not be a third Bush, and a few harbor resentment at George W. Bush for launching the Iraq war in 2003.

“You’ve got Rubio doing poorly, and he sweats like a dog”, Trump said.

He said the “capital” and “leadership” that Right to Rise has makes it, and therefore Bush, a formidable competitor in the primary.

Tensions between the two candidates have been escalating for weeks. At one point as they discussed Jeb’s mastery of the Spanish language, the elder Bush joked, “I got a 50-word vocabulary”.