Jeb Bush’s humiliating whiff: Why bad polls and a lame speech are killing his hype - By Joan Walsh

Asked about his detail-free talk on poverty and opportunity Bush told reporters "More to come on that." But when?

JOAN WALSH

It was supposed to be a big deal: On the heels of Mitt Romney’s withdrawal from the race, alleged GOP 2016 frontrunner Jeb Bush planned a speech in Detroit where he was supposed to tackle issues of poverty and opportunity and claim the mantle of “reform conservative.”

Bush’s interest in these issues doesn’t really make him all that special in the GOP: All the Republican 2016 wannabes are touting their concern about poverty and the growing U.S. opportunity gap. Sen. Marco Rubio wrote a book about it. Sen. Rand Paul attacked it in his State of the Union reply. Gov. Scott Walker swung at it in his widely praised Iowa speech two weekends ago. A semi-movement of so-called “reform conservatives” has begun agitating for more attention to inequality of opportunity, pushing solutions mainly through the tax code. The details are sketchy, but at least the interest is there.

With the advance attention Bush’s speech was getting – Time hyped it as “intended to broaden the reach of the Republican Party and focus the coming presidential campaign on the economic plight of the American middle class” and “Bush’s first attempt to define himself on the public stage,” I assumed he would lay out specifics – but I assumed wrong.

Indeed, Bush declared himself a “reform conservative,” but he never defined what that meant in terms of policy. He called “the opportunity gap” the “defining issue of our time,” and blamed government for ignoring it. “If Americans are working harder than ever, earning less than they once did, our government and our leaders should step up, offer a plan, fix what’s wrong — or they should step aside,” he said.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/02/05/jeb_bushs_humiliating_whiff_why_bad_polls_and_a_lame_speech_are_killing_his_hype/