How to Lose the Iowa Caucus: Jeb Bush Attacks Steve King

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is going to be a long-shot candidate if he decides to run for President in the 2016 Iowa Caucus.  His positions on issues ranging from immigration reform to the Common Core State Standards put him out of step with the conservative base of the party.  Then he has his last name.  I don’t think Republican voters are ready to send another Bush to the White House.

If he is running in 2016 then he’s running a clinic on how to guarantee one loses the Iowa Caucus.

First lesson if you want to lose attack Congressman Steve King (R-IA).  It’s not that Congressman King is untouchable and that he can do no wrong, but he is well respected among grassroots conservatives – you know the type Governor Bush would need to win over should he decide to run.  The grassroots identify with Congressman King and his position on the issues.

So when Bush takes a crack at him in New York of all places… well that shows he lacks the sense to run a successful campaign in Iowa.  Politico reports:

“We’ve not made an effective case” in the last two elections to voters, he said, calling for a more “positive” and forward-looking vision. “A lot of voters have just turned off the Republican message.”

Republicans can’t win new voters “by narrowing your party and purifying your party and all this nonsense,” he said.

And he blasted some of the rhetoric from congressional Republicans against immigration, such as Iowa Rep. Steve King as “shameful and so insulting … [it’s] totally out of the mainstream of conservative thought.”

But it’s those remarks, he said, that “gets attention.”

Congressman King has been taken out of context on this issue by so many people that I have lost count.  Do I agree 100% with Congressman King on immigration?  No, I don’t.  I wouldn’t agree with Bush either.  The difference – I know Congressman King and I trust him and he represents most of my views..  Jeb Bush is the last one who should be telling anybody what is outside the mainstream of conservative thought since that is where he resides.  Heck he’s a poster child for it.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC-By-SA 2.0)