Team Bush's next move has to be to figure out a way to get rid of the other 'establishment' friendly candidates. When you look at last cycle, Romney pretty much had that space to himself but Bush has to deal with Rubio, Kasich, Christie (and some others), all of whom can hart his chances in NH where Bush needs a win.
Rubio is especially problematic as he is growing in support and seems to have universal good ratings with GOPers. Team Bush needs to figure out a way to drive up Rubio's negatives but without being seen as the attackers. I suspect there is going to be some strategic leaking to the media of anti-Rubio oppo in the coming weeks.
Yeah. I suspect this will happen sooner than the Bush people thought it would.
Rubio/Walker MUST be ready to go on the total offensive, since the Bush team has no qualms about playing dirty. Rubio/Walker have to basically say that the country is not ready for a third Bush and accuse him of being a moderate hero. If they do go this far, we basically have to accept that Bush won't be the nominee, since (A) I doubt he can withstand such attacks and (B) they wouldn't go that far without eliminating the chance of them being VP to Bush (so they themselves accept he probably won't be the nominee)
Bush and Rubio have already been hitting each other obliquely for months. We only have a single (online) poll published post-debate but PPP suggests Fiorina is moving up fast in Iowa, Kasich's spending in NH gave him a bit of a boost in NH even before the debate and both got good coverage post-debate. That said, I don't think there's an urgency necessarily. Romney (and Paul) didn't destroy Gingrich until December 2011 if memory serves, and he did it again in Florida in about a week.
New Hampshire is pretty wide open but Bush has a pretty good chance to take it.
That said, even if Trump implodes, whatever is driving his appeal poses serious hurdles for Bush.
