Jeb Bush's 2016 plan: Wait out the fad candidates

Jeb Bush wants to be president of America, not merely one of several "presidents of August," says a top strategist to the former Florida governor.

The quip — which adviser Mike Murphy made to GOP donors last month, according to The Washington Post — refers to the way fad candidates bubble to the surface early in presidential races only to fade down the stretch. Bush lags considerably in early polls for someone with his name recognition, though his team is telling would-be backers not to panic.

Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum all challenged Romney in 2012, if only briefly. We know how that turned out. Bush faces a tougher field in 2016, though, which will make playing the long game much harder. Just ask Rudy Giuliani.

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