Free Republic

The latest Nevada poll finds that Donald Trump is dominating the early state with 45 percent. Jeb Bush, on the other hand, is at a mere 1 percent in the poll.

For Jeb Bush, the crushing phone call came Wednesday afternoon. It was Nikki Haley, South Carolina's wildly popular governor and Republican Party darling. She had decided to endorse a candidate ahead of Saturday's GOP presidential primary. Not Bush - even though his brother, former President George W. Bush, paid her a deferential visit Monday. Instead, Haley backed Jeb Bush's fiercest primary rival, Marco Rubio. Moments later, Bush was due at a campaign event at the Summerville Country Club, northwest of Charleston. He showed up in shirtsleeves, no tie - and, now that he's realized they aged him, no glasses -...

Jeb Bush is having a rough day. Fighting for his political life in the final days of this primary battle, Bush took the stage intent on showing toughness and drawing a sharp contrast between himself and Marco Rubio. Just moments earlier, he'd gotten devastating news: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, whose endorsement he'd sought, was backing Rubio, who poses the biggest threat to his own chances of political survival. "Disappointed," Bush told reporters, summing up his feelings about Haley's endorsement as he was leaving the town hall here. "She's a very good governor and should I win the nomination, there'll...

About 15 minutes before Jeb Bush's town-hall-style event commenced here Wednesday afternoon, The State newspaper in Columbia broke news that could drastically reshape the South Carolina primary race: Governor Nikki Haley was endorsing Marco Rubio. The development represents a major blow to Bush, who had aggressively pursued Haley's support and believed it to be within reach. He told NBC on Tuesday that, "If she is going to give an endorsement it would be the most powerful, meaningful one in the state." Bush has been lagging in recent polls here, and Haley's backing could have provided him the type of last-minute...

He's stuck in the polls and just lost a major endorsement. And now voters are in open panic about the fate of Jeb Bush. The Republican presidential candidate was barraged by conflicting advice from supporters increasingly distressed by the rise of GOP front-runner Donald Trump and that the former Florida governor's campaign has stalled.

In his early days as a presidential candidate, Jeb Bush appeared to campaign in a defensive stance: Sensitive about his political patrimony, he insisted he was his "own man" and struggled to address the conduct of the Iraq war under his brother, President George W. Bush. Saddled with a record of supporting lenient immigration policy, Mr. Bush practiced the politics of reassurance, putting his plans for border security front and center and declaring prominently in a summer debate that he would never support "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants. But in the final days of the South Carolina primary campaign, Mr. Bush...

Just days before the Feb. 20 primary, Republican front-runner Donald Trump holds a commanding lead in South Carolina, according to a new poll. Trump leads the GOP field, with 35 percent support, according to the Monmouth University poll, nearly doubling that of his nearest competitor, Ted Cruz, who garners 19 percent support. Marco Rubio places third, with 17 percent support, followed by John Kasich, with 9 percent support, Jeb Bush, with 8 percent, and Ben Carson, with 7 percent.

Jeb Bush became the leaker-in-chief of his own campaign on Tuesday, accidentally revealing during a press conference that his mother Barbara Bush would be coming out on to the campaign trail with him yet again -- this time in South Carolina. "Yeah, my mom's coming," Bush told reporters on Tuesday. "Well, she was in New Hampshire. This is a little easier trip for her, this kind of weather, she'll be back." "That's not announced yet?" Bush later sheepishly asked, turning to his spokeswoman Kristy Campbell. "I blew it. Always here to help," he added. Campbell confirmed that Barbara Bush will...

Barbara Bush, the former first lady and mother of Jeb Bush, was so popular in New Hampshire that her son's campaign is bringing her back on the trail. The former Florida governor accidentally announced his mother's return in a press gaggle Tuesday following an employee town hall at FN Manufacturing here. "That's not announced yet?" Bush said after spilling the beans and turning to his spokeswoman Kristy Campbell. "It will be announced," Campbell said. "Thursday, she's coming in Thursday night and she's staying until the primary." "I blew it," Bush joked. "Always here to help."

During a South Carolina town hall on Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham asks the audience, "how many of you are Democrats?" Jeb Bush raises his hand and smiles.

The reason for Donald Trump's continued attacks against Jeb Bush? According to Bush, it's because "he fears me." "I think he is a master at manipulation, and I find it amusing on one level that he constantly attacks me," Bush said Tuesday in an interview with "CBS This Morning." -snip- "I'm his primary target, and I'm doing so poor in the polls, according to everybody, right? Well, why is that? Why is he going after me each and every day?" the former governor of Florida asked rhetorically. "It's because he fears me, because I'm the only guy standing up to...

Time and again this election, Jeb Bush has been outshone by more charismatic candidates. On Monday, there was a slight variation on the story. Once again, Jeb was outdone by a much more talented politician, but this time, it was a backer and not a rival: Jeb's big brother George W. Bush. It was the former president's first appearance on the campaign trail this cycle, and it came just a few days before the South Carolina Republican primary, which is shaping up to be a make-or-break moment for Jeb. President Bush, along with his wife Laura and Senator Lindsey Graham,...

Jeb Bush has an event on Feb. 15 in Key Largo, while Florida rival Marco Rubio goes to Ocean Reef on March 11. The invitation for Rubio's has more than twice as many names, including Cynthia & Patrick Lee, Judy & Gary Ball, and Maggie & Steve Parker. Bush's host committee includes Jorge Arrizurieta, Nanci & Nick Lanni and Nancy & Bobby Schostak.

Just two days after having his family name smeared by the Republican presidential frontrunner during the Greenville debate, Jeb Bush is cashing in his biggest insurance policy by dusting off his brother, former President George W. Bush for a Lowcountry rally Monday night. It will be the first time George W. Bush hits the campaign trail since he left the presidency. The rally, at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center at 6 p.m., is expected to draw hundreds, if not thousands, as the Bush name is held in esteem by many Palmetto State Republicans. Not invited to the...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush gave his fellow Republican presidential candidates an elementary lesson on immigration at the last debate before the South Carolina primary. After a moderator asked whether the immigration debate was insufficiently compassionate, Bush responded with a nuanced understanding of why immigrants enter the U.S. without proper authorization. "The great majority of people that come to this country come because they have no other choice," Bush answered at the debate, hosted by CBS News in Greenville, South Carolina. "These are people coming to provide for their families, and we should show a little more respect for the...

Jeb Bush said campaigning with his brother, former President George W. Bush, tomorrow could help save his presidential campaign. -snip- "The point is, is he a popular Republican? You bet he is," Bush said of his brother. "And he will make the point ... that he knows what it takes to be president of the United States, to be commander-in-chief, to keep the country safe and that he believes that I have those skills based on my record and based on how he knows me, and that will be validator in South Carolina where values matter and where national defense...

After Jeb Bush explained his policy for going after ISIS at the GOP presidential debate in South Carolina Saturday night, Donald Trump ripped into the former Florida governor - and was met with ferocious boos from the audience. "Jeb is so wrong, Jeb is absolutely so wrong," Trump said of Bush's call to dispose of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, only to get the audience hissing. Trump wasn't put off. "You know who that is? That's Jeb's special interest and lobby talking," he said, drawing his second round of boos. "I only tell the truth, lobbyists," Trump replied.

This is like watching a trainwreck in slow motion- Jeb Bush was giving a speech to the Rotary Club in Nashua, New Hampshire. They cut him off mid-speech. And his response was so pathetic.

The cloud of awkwardness and clumsy misfortune continues to loom over Jeb Bush's head while on the campaign trail. At a rotary club rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Jeb was interrupted during the middle of his speech and ushered off stage. "They're kicking me out the door," Jeb said. "They're kicking me out the door." He then proceeded to awkwardly nod his head, walk around in a circle, and then move off stage.

A Jeb Bush campaign speech breached a new dimension of awkwardness this week. The former Florida governor was speaking at a Rotary Club in New Hampshire Monday when a Rotary official interrupted the presidential candidate and sent him back to his seat. A C-SPAN video of the speech shows the man interrupting Bush's speech and ushering him off the stage. "They're kicking me off the stage!" Bush says, waving his arms, apparently flabbergasted by what is happening.