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Bush vs. Rubio

As Bush's candidacy keeps failing, there will be increasing pressure to go after Rubio.
Bush-v-Rubio

Jeb Bush’s campaign is thinking of ways to try to sabotage Rubio:

Seething with anger and alarmed over Mr. Rubio’s rise, aides to Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, and his allies are privately threatening a wave of scathing attacks on his former protégé in the coming weeks, in a sign of just how anxious they have become about the state of Mr. Bush’s candidacy.

Bush’s precipitous collapse may end up being more of a problem for Rubio than many people suppose. As Bush’s candidacy keeps failing, there will be increasing pressure to go after Rubio with the understanding that damaging Rubio is now Bush’s best bet of becoming relevant again. There is evidently very strong resentment against Rubio in Bush’s circle, so it wouldn’t be surprising if his allies sought to undermine the senator with many negative attacks over the next few months. The hostility to Rubio in Bush’s camp also suggests that Bush donors may not end up gravitating to Rubio in the end. That doesn’t augur well for a Bush revival, which isn’t going to happen, but it does make claims that Rubio is the most likely nominee even harder to take seriously.

The Bush campaign is also taking for granted that the two leading candidates will implode or lose most of their support, but this may also be wishful thinking on their part. While the main so-called “establishment” candidates feud with one another over with about 20% of the party between them, the two “outsiders” continue to have more than 50% supporting them. The Bush and Rubio campaigns see one another as the only real competition while both are being repeatedly lapped by Trump and Carson in every early state. If neither of them wins many contests, it will be amusing to look back at this quarrel in six months’ time and realize that they were attacking the wrong opponents.

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