The first person to address former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at a town hall at a suburban middle school over the weekend had more of a story to tell than a question to ask.
Boxer Mike Weaver was bruised and battered for 14 rounds in an epic 1980 bout before landing a devastating left hook that knocked John Tate cold.
The parallel that Don O’Day, a Bush supporter from Connecticut, was trying to make was unmistakable. With grit and determination, the long shot can win.
Bush chuckled as he thanked him for the comparison, but the prospects of a similar comeback are as daunting as ever.
For one thing, Bush isn’t the only underdog in the ring, and he has more than one heavyweight opponent. He’s lagged far behind billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the polls for months despite tens of millions of dollars spent. His famous last name has become a liability in a year when voters have flocked to outsiders. And he’s fresh off a disappointing sixth place finish in Iowa’s caucus last week.
Which is why his performance in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary could make or break his bid to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother.
His campaign has taken on the air of a last stand. He calls New Hampshire his “second home” and like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, he’s held dozens of events here. But he and his fellow governors are struggling to leap past Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as the choice of so-called establishment Republicans.
With the vote looming, the campaign brought in 90-year-old Barbara Bush to navigate the icy streets of New Hampshire towns to make a final pitch for her son. And at town hall meetings across the state, an impassioned Jeb Bush cast himself as more pragmatic than Trump and more experienced than Rubio and Cruz.
“I would argue that the next president needs to be a little quieter,” he told a crowd of 700 in a school gym.
“No more trash-talking,” he urged.
“I hope you want someone with a steady hand.”
Bush didn't land a knockout blow at Saturday's debate, but a testy exchange with Trump over whether the government should have expanded power to take private property for development highlighted his more aggressive approach. After Bush pummeled Trump over his embrace of eminent domain, the billionaire was booed by the audience when he tried to quiet Bush.
Some New Hampshire voters are giving Bush a second look.
John and Dina Weber were wavering over their support for the Floridian before this weekend, but both said a visit to his town hall helped them make up their minds.
“I think I will support him, but I’m concerned he won’t make it through,” said Weber, who lives in Bedford. “You don’t want to waste your vote on a horse that won’t finish. But I will vote for him anyways.”
Others are more skeptical. Michael Dickinson, sporting a Jeb sticker, said he appreciated hearing from a “more comfortable, more genuine and less awkward” Bush in recent days. But he said he remains “very undecided” - torn between four candidates not named Bush.
“I’m a centrist and I agree with what he says,” said Dickinson. “But he’s saying a lot of things that President Obama is either saying or wants to do, so I’m worried about how much difference between the two there is.”
Even his fiercest supporters have their concerns. Richard Littlefield has attended nine town hall gatherings with Bush and said that, without a doubt, he’ll cast his ballot Tuesday for him.
“There’s no one who can match him in the Republican field,” said Littlefield. “But a lot of people aren’t giving him a shot because of his last name.”
The candidate’s answer to that complaint: “The Bush thing, people are just going to have to get over it.”
“I am who I am,” he added. “I’m in the ‘establishment’ because my brother was a president and my dad was a president, and when I woke up in Midland, Texas, there she was. I woke up my little eyes and there she was, Barbara Bush.”
A poor showing on Tuesday will only increase the pressure on Bush to drop out of the race, which could help Rubio or another mainstream candidate competing against Trump and Cruz.
But his campaign insists that Bush will fight beyond New Hampshire, and it has already drawn up plans for an appearance with George W. Bush in South Carolina in the run up to the state's Feb. 20 GOP primary.
His son, George P. Bush, said his dad will be in the fight until the final bell rings.
“My dad is a grinder. He’s going to see this until the very end. And he never gives up.”
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