This is how Jeb Bush hopes to revive his sagging White House bid

Before Jeb Bush took to the stage in Boulder, Colorado, for Wednesday night's third Republican presidential debate, the punditry had decided that he had to put in a strong performance or his already flagging campaign might be finished. The consensus was that he did not make a strong showing, so now what? "I could have done better," Bush reportedly told senior staffers and top donors on an emergency call Thursday. His campaign is "not on life support," he then told reporters while campaigning in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "The end is not near. Memo to file."

It's never a good sign when you have to defend your campaign from charges that it is "terminal," as Bush did Thursday on Fox News. But Team Jeb! has a plan to turn the ship around, campaign officials are assuring donors, even while one top Bush adviser tells The Washington Post that the candidate and his camp won't be panicked by "the insanity of the pundit world." Here are some key points in the revival program for Jeb Bush, as shared with the media on one of the darker days for Bush 2016.

1. Focus on New Hampshire: Bush's cash-flush super PAC has set aside almost $11 million for an advertising blitz starting Jan. 5, and $5.6 million of that is for New Hampshire, according to a 112-page campaign document leaked to U.S. News. Bush has already visited New Hampshire at least 16 times this year, more than double his trips to Iowa, and when he slashed his budget and downsized staff in Miami last week, Bush moved resources to New Hampshire, which is now a must-win state. Bush plans to lose in Iowa.

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2. Focus on proven leadership over "performance": Bush doesn't seem to be a great debater, so he's downplaying the importance of debates. "It's not about the big personalities on the stage," Bush said Thursday. "It's not about performance. It's about leadership."

3. Keep attacking Marco Rubio: In the leaked campaign memo, handed to donors on Monday, the Bush campaign paints Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a former Bush protégé, as his key competitor for the GOP establishment vote and money pot. It titled one section of its memo "Marco is a Risky Bet," noting his "misuse of state party credit cards, taxpayer funds, and ties to scandal-tarred former Congressman David Rivera," among other alleged demerits. Bush's attack on Rubio in the debate backfired pretty badly — as did his team's suggestion that Mitt Romney's VP vetters found some shady stuff in Rubio's background — but some of Bush's super PAC ads are expected to attack Rubio on the airwaves.

4. Stop the leaks: Bush has a large group of advisers and staffers, and some of these backers have been saying dispiriting things to the press. "Discipline Matters," warns one of his strategy sections that was, yes, leaked to the media.

5. Relax and get comfortable: Longtime Bush supporters say the candidate they see running in 2015 is a diminished form of the towering figure he was as governor — and not just because he has dieted away 40 pounds. So Bush will be campaigning with old friends to try to make him more like his old self. "The operative word going forward is 'relax,' and to lower expectations of how this primary will play out," said one of those friends, Al Cardenas.

6. Highlight Bush's Florida record with a book tour: Bush is mostly running on his list of accomplishments in Florida, and one of his tools to underscore those years is a new book excerpting his emails as governor. He is giving a "major speech" in Tampa next week to coincide with the release of that book, Reply All.

Jeb Bush planned to run as a "joyful" warrior in a year when the Republican base isn't feeling very celebratory. He is modeling his campaign reboot partly on Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) successful 2007 maneuvering from afterthought candidate to Republican nominee. But while there are certainly some similarities between McCain's fall from presumptive frontrunner to fading has-been, there are differences that should give Bush and his team pause. Nobody ever accused McCain of being "low energy," for example, and when he went on his 2007 romp toward the nomination, his happy warrior persona was more warrior and less happy.

Jeb Bush can do joyful, but so far he hasn't demonstrated the stomach or the skill to wound Rubio, Donald Trump, or anyone else standing between him and the Oval Office. "If Governor Bush can't land a punch on Marco Rubio on the debate stage," one senior GOP operative tells The Washington Post, "then the super PAC can’t do it from the peanut gallery." If Bush can muster up enough political dexterity to shiv Rubio without looking like a fool or a bully, maybe Republicans will consider supporting him for the coming fight against Hillary Clinton.