For Jeb Bush, today’s South Carolina was a case of do or die.
Die it was. Bush picked up a mere 7.8% of the vote. He dropped out of the race today.
Kasich and Carson did even worse than Bush so this will soon be a three-way race between Trump, Rubio, and Cruz.
Vote Count
With 99% of the vote counted, here are the results.
Given his dismal performance, Jeb Bush Bows Out of Campaign, Humbled and Outgunned.
Jeb Bush dropped out of the presidential race on Saturday, ending a quest for the White House that started with a war chest of $100 million, a famous name and a promise of political civility but concluded with a humbling recognition: In 2016, none of it mattered.
No single candidacy this year fell so short of its original expectations. It began with an aura of inevitability that masked deep problems, from Mr. Bush himself, a clunky candidate in a field of gifted performers, to the rightward drift of the Republican Party since Mr. Bush’s time as a consensus conservative in Florida.
Mr. Bush’s campaign had rested on a set of assumptions that, one by one, turned out to be flatly incorrect: that the Republican primaries would turn on a record of accomplishment in government; that Mr. Bush’s cerebral and reserved style would be an asset; and that a country wary of dynasties would evaluate this member of the Bush family on his own merits.
“We’ve had enough Bushes,” his mother, Barbara Bush, observed prophetically before her son announced his candidacy last summer.
“We’ve had enough Bushes”
Indeed we have. We had one too many in fact. I offer this musical tribute.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE&w=450&h=300]
Soon there will be three.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
