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

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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.

The strategy is being driven by a confident, tightly knit group of Bush advisers who are focused on amassing as much money as possible for his allied super PAC on the theory that a considerable cash advantage will enable Bush to outlast his competitors.The approach is similar to the tack Mitt Romney took in 2012, when the former Massachusetts governor prevailed at the end of a protracted primary contest in which a half-dozen candidates briefly tasted front-runner status, only to fall. [The Washington Post]

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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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.