A Candidate Who Can’t Attack His Opponent

Barring some rip in the space-time continuum, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee in 2016. She should be an easy target! But the one Republican least able to attack her is Jeb Bush, who shares almost every one of her vulnerabilities: Yesterday’s politics? Dynastic entitlement? The use of political connection for financial advantage? Jeb Bush will want to talk about none of those things. The explanation will be given that he wants to run a “positive campaign.” The reality will be a tacit pact to avoid awkward topics, a pact to which a less vulnerable Republican would not have to accede. And while a positive campaign sounds like a welcome development, it will bump into another reality …

The Wrong Kind of Moderate

Jeb Bush appeals to the more moderate-Republican voter. A mischievous survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found that Scott Walker led among Republicans who believed that the federal government was plotting a military takeover of Texas, while Jeb Bush led among those who did not. This is the kind of data that might normally be filed under, “Ask a silly question …” Still, it indicates something about where the different candidates find their support. But as Jeb Bush himself will insist, moderation in tone is not the same as moderation in content. ““I’m not angry. I’m not trying to divide, I’m trying to persuade. Perhaps moderate in tone is misinterpreted as moderate in beliefs,” he told Maggie Haberman of The New York Times. After the jolt of the 2012 defeat, some Republicans began to talk about modulating the “makers versus takers” approach of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and their brain trust, and developing a platform more congenial to the middle class. But parties allow their aspiring leaders only so many deviations, and Jeb Bush has exhausted his heterodoxy budget on immigration and the Common Core curriculum. On economic issues, he will not have scope for innovation.