Jeb Bush Bows Out

After finishing a distant fourth in this evening's South Carolina GOP primary with only 7.8% of the vote, Jeb Bush mercifully ended his presidential bid.

I am not surprised this has come to pass.

When Bush launched his campaign, I offered five reasons he would not win.

Two of the five reasons revolved around policy specifically his softness on illegal immigration and his support for Common Core.

I also argued that Jeb's praise of Hillary Clinton wasn't helpful. Then again, Donald Trump has given campaign contributions to Hillary and his supporters don't bat an eyelash.

Whatever his praise for Hillary, the fact he'd been out of circulation for so long didn't help him. Nor did his last name. These proved to be the two biggest factors that doomed Jeb's candidacy.

Although Jeb got better with each debate performance and wasn't afraid to criticize Trump it did him no favors.

The only thing Jeb could have done to save his campaign would have been if he had taken a glove and slapped Trump's face with it and challenged him to a duel after he refused to apologize for demeaning his wife. Of course, if Jeb and Trump did engage in a duel, Trump would have shot Jeb in the back. 

This just wasn't Jeb's year.

As such, the Bush dynasty is no more. In some ways this is healthy. The Republican Party can't be the fiefdom of a single family. But this brings about a large void, a void very likely to be filled by a charlatan.