Jeb Bush — struggling to reverse his fading presidential bid — now comes with a guarantee: the former Florida governor is trumpeting that he's absolutely, positively going to win the New Hampshire Republican primary.
In a spirited interview with ABC's Manchester affiliate
WMUR-TV, Bush declared:
"I'm going to win it! There's a difference. I honestly believe I'm going to win New Hampshire."
Bush's new energy comes as he relaunches what has been a lackluster campaign with the slogan "Jeb Can Fix It."
"We're getting into the second quarter. Halfway through the second quarter, and we've made some adjustments in the campaign," Bush explained.
"Reallocated money toward the early states. I'm going to spend more time in the early states."
Bush said he plans to stump in New Hampshire — which holds the first, all-important state primary in March — the way all candidates do.
"They go to pharmacies and have 100 people show up and have a town hall meeting, impromptu. Do a lot of selfies. Go campaign all across the state," he said.
"Tell the Jeb story. One of an accomplishment. One of a record of applying conservative principles in a meaningful way that helped everybody. Garnering endorsements of opinion leaders in the state."
But with Donald Trump as the ongoing Republican front-runner and Bush with a pathetic 4 percent in a recent poll, hasn't the colorful billionaire developer and former reality show star sewed up the nomination?
"I don't see it. I think people are going to think about who'ss going to sit behind the big desk," Bush said.
"The only way you can be an effective leader is to listen, to learn and then to lead, and I can tell stories about what I've learned on the stump and what I've done as governor and what my life's journey has been about. And you can do that here better than any other place."
Then why are Trump and retired pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson — two political novices who have never been elected to public office — running roughshod over established, highly-experienced politicians.
"There's a lot of frustration with Washington. And for different reasons, people are supporting two people, temporarily, who have appealed to them because of their frustration and their anger," Bush told WMUR. "At the end of the day, people are going to be electing a president."
He added that he's "confident," despite a "long haul" ahead.
"I know I've got a hill to climb. I'm not going to be sliding into this downhill … I'm about the most competitive dude in the world," Bush said.
"I want people to know that I have a servant's heart. I got a backbone. I got a heart and I got a brain. And the combination of that and my life experience should give them comfort that I won't be a divider-in-chief.
"That I'm going to fight for my conservative principles and the ideas I've advocated, but I'm going to do it in a way that unites the country, rather than divides us."
Asked about Trump's controversial retweet of a photo composite of Bush next to a Nazi swastika, Bush said:
"I think Mr. Trump should probably create a 'no tweet zone' after about eight o'clock. There ought to be an eight o'clock rule … How am I supposed to comment on that?
"Tell me. Give me some advice on how I comment on me having a swastika associated with myself tweeted by a leading presidential candidate."
Bush has his work cut out for him in kick-starting his push for the White House in the footsteps of his father President George H.W. Bush and his brother President Georg W. Bush.
A
Fox News poll of Republican of presidential candidates released Wednesday, Trump continued his lead, with Carson edging up just three points behind, and Bush in the lower single digits.
The results:
- Trump: 26 percent.
- Carson: 23 percent.
- Cruz and Rubio: 11 percent.
- Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, and Rand Paul: 4 percent.
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