http://hotair.com/archives/2015/09/01/let-the-attack-ads-begin-new-jeb-bush-ad-hits-trump-for-being-a-fake-conservative/
Let the attack ads begin: New Jeb Bush ad hits Trump for being a fake conservative
POSTED AT 11:21 AM ON
SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
Why would the establishment’s guy aim his fire at Mr. Populism now? He’s better off trying to elbow Walker, Rubio, and especially Kasich out of the race early, knowing that Republicans who hate Trump will eventually line up behind whoever’s still left in the center. Jeb thinks he can win a “Trump vs. Not Trump” race — and frankly, given the mood of voters, that may be the only race he can still win. Then again, if the candidates are supposed to be focused on winning their own “bracket” of the primaries right now, Ted Cruz should be running attack ads on Trump, right? And yet he isn’t. He’s his best friend in the race. So what’s going on here?
Two things, I think. One: The perception that Trump has “emasculated” Bush by jabbing at him with no penalty is hurting Jeb. No one likes a wimp, especially as a prospective C-in-C. As a matter of pure ape-like male dominance, he needs to hit back. And while it seems absurd for Bush, with his immigration record and donor-class backing, to attack anyone else in the race for being too squishy, it’s such an obvious point of attack on Trump that Jeb couldn’t resist. Trump is a fake conservative and Jeb’s not the only candidate who’ll end up making sure that voters know it.
The other reason to attack Trump is because, I think, Team Jeb still imagines themselves less as a member of the “establishment bracket” in the race than as the rightful frontrunner who’s destined to battle some yet-to-emerge more conservative candidate for the nomination. They’re attacking Trump simply because he’s the guy who’s momentarily blocking Jeb’s, er, right to rise in the polls; their assumption, I’d bet, is that once Trump has been neutralized and voters start looking seriously at the race, Bush will begin to float upward as the obvious centrist “adult in the room.” It’s not a matter of picking off voters from Trump, as Carpenter imagines, but rather a matter of restoring the rules of normal political gravity to a race that’s suddenly been transported to an alternate dimension where Donald Trump is a political phenomenon. To return to an analogy I used last week for Trumpmania, Jeb’s trying to begin the process here of exorcising the poltergeist. Then peace can reign in the GOP’s house again and we can all embrace the donor-anointed RINO who’s been tasked with losing with dignity to the Democrat in this new cycle.
= new reply since forum marked as read
