Bush's Big Bomb

A few hours before the third Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I was hunched over my laptop, either hard at work or studying Google Maps to determine the nearest dispensary of a form of medication (absurdly) not yet legal in the Empire State, when I overheard some gasbag (and trust me, being a bloviator of the first order myself, I know the type) holding forth about Jeb Bush. About how the debate was a “do-or-die” event for the former Florida governor. A “make-or-break moment” with “everything on the line,” in which the stakes were “the whole ball of wax.” Etc.

After 20-plus years in this racket, my instinctive inclination is to dismiss out of hand such declarations as overheated, hyperbolic gibberish. Of course in presidential politics there are moments that prove to be turning points, either laying a candidate low or vaulting him to greater glory. But it’s rare that such occasions can be predicted in advance. And even rarer is the single setback, however crushing or humiliating, from which a sufficiently determined and resourceful candidate finds it simply impossible to recover.