Can Jeb ‘Fix’ His Poll Numbers?

The latest 2016 campaign to reboot into a new theme is that of Jeb Bush, who is now touting his slogan as “Jeb can fix it.” Hillary Clinton went through a few rounds of similar re-tooling since her announcement earlier this year, however, she seems to have found a more solid footing on the Democratic side. For Bush, this change may be too little, too late to actually stem the hemorrhaging support.

Report from Politico:

Jeb Bush’s support among Republicans nationally has plummeted to the low single digits in the latest Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday, as the former Florida governor’s campaign seeks to hit refresh with its “Jeb Can Fix It” tour.

Donald Trump and Ben Carson, meanwhile, continued to lead the field, with Carson outperforming Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general-election matchup.

In the latest poll, conducted after last week’s third GOP debate in which Bush delivered a mediocre performance, just 4 percent of Republican and independent Republican-leaning voters said they would support Bush in their state’s primary. In the September survey, Bush earned 10 percent, trailing Trump, Carson and Carly Fiorina. And in terms of favorability, no one polled lower than Bush, at a net-negative of 33 points. Just 25 percent of all registered voters surveyed said they had a positive opinion of him, while 58 percent said they had a negative one.
For its part, the Bush campaign has tried to manage expectations among the media.

“FYI political press corps. Jeb’s going to have a few weeks of bad polls,” campaign communications director Tim Miller tweeted Monday. “Comebacks take time, we recognize and are prepared for that.”

Here’s the breakdown in readable form:

24% – Trump
23% – Carson
14% – Rubio
13% – Cruz
4% – Bush

Everyone else is less than 3%.

It appears Bush is losing support to a few different campaigns with Rubio the largest benefactor. As Bush’s national poll numbers drop, his podium will move further form the center at the upcoming debates and he’ll receive less attention, something that almost sends campaigns into a death spiral. Then again, he’s had plenty of attention at the first three debates and it has done little to help him against a strong field.

He’s clearly going to try and hang on for the next debate on Tuesday, but if that also falls flat, how long does he stick around? At some point, for the good of the GOP establishment, he’ll have to cut ties and endorse Rubio as a firewall against the Trump/Carson insurgency, am I right?