How desperate is Jeb Bush? He's thinking about campaigning with his brother.
Jeb Bush is polling at 4 percent among Republican voters, according to the latest survey from Pew. While his handlers say that the campaign is built for the long haul, and political scientists will tell you that the laws of political gravity will ultimately drag down renegade candidates like Donald Trump, we've also seen how low poll numbers sparked a death spiral in dried-up funds and plummeting enthusiasm for the likes of Scott Walker and Rick Perry.
So a rattled Bush campaign is reportedly contemplating bringing out a big gun to woo disaffected conservative voters: George W. Bush, who is still popular with the party's base, even as he remains a divisive figure with the voting public at large. The New York Times reports that the decision to campaign with the former president is "an agonizing one for the campaign":
Then again, if Jeb Bush were to cling more tightly to his brother, he couldn't do worse than his competitors, who for the most part have embraced George W. Bush's legacy on issues of national security and taxes. Appearing with the former president on stage would just make the connection explicit.
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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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