Jeb Bush is attending a RedState gathering in August instead of participating in the Iowa Straw Poll, which is causing some consternation among Iowa Republicans,
reports Jennifer Jacobs:
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann told the [Des Moines] Register: "We hope Governor Bush rethinks his decision and realizes that grass-roots will only grow in Iowa if he waters them. The RedState Gathering is a four-day event, and other candidates have already indicated that they will be attending both. We don't buy this excuse and neither will Iowans."
Whew ... sounds testy! Rep. Michele Bachmann reigned supreme in Iowa's 2011 straw poll (nice pick!) and Bush doesn't stand a chance there, which is probably why he's skipping. Of course, that would suggest he has a some sort of electoral strategy—an assumption that has become extremely dubious of late with his stumbles on foreign policy and Iraq. First W was his
chief advisor on Mideast policy, then he said he would
invade Iraq all over again, then he
misheard the question, then
he wasn't sure what he would do on Iraq but he definitely wants "to learn from the past."
If this is all part of Jeb's primary strategy to run a campaign that could win a general election, then he's considerably more daft than we thought.