Mitch Perry
For the second straight day, Jeb Bush is taking on Donald Trump directly regarding ideology.
Tuesday, the Bush camp posted a web ad featuring Trump parroting liberal positions over the years.
On Wednesday, the former Florida governor, who trails Trump everywhere in the polls (including Florida) has posted a quiz on his website asking, “Which candidate are you?” It’s followed by seven questions that all ask which candidate would a Republican primary voter rather support, comparing where Bush stands on an issue and what Trump has said in the past.
The first question asks if the voters would rather support a candidate who opposes the Iran nuclear deal (Bush), or “Thought Hillary Clinton would negotiate a good Iran deal,” a comment Trump made in 2007.
The second question asks if the voter would prefer a candidate who “said they were very pro-choice (a comment Trump gave to NBC’s Tim Russert on Meet The Press in 1999 ) or “Was strongly a pro-life Governor and defunded Planned Parenthood.”
The third question is on guns: would the voter prefer a candidate who “Supported an assault weapons ban” (which Trump wrote about in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve ) or “Was applauded by the NRA for a six-pack of freedom.”
The fourth question is on health care: Would you rather support a candidate who supports a single-payer health care system (something he also wrote about in The America We Deserve) or “who supported patient oriented, local solutions for Medicaid Reform.”
The Bush camp gets a little personal on the seventh and last question, asking whetherthe voter would prefer a candidate who “strives to share every hand everywhere,” versus a candidate who “is a germaphobe who refuses to shake hands.”
In Trump’s 1997 opus The Art of the Comeback, he wrote, “One of the curses of American society is the simple act of shaking hands, and the more successful and famous one becomes the worse this terrible custom seems to get. I happen to be a clean hands freak. I feel much better after I thoroughly wash my hands, which I do as much as possible.”
Voters are then asked to submit their email address and zip code to get their results. For those who choose the more liberal positions, they get this response:
You got Donald Trump
You have clear Democratic tendencies. You’re looking for the candidate who proposed record new tax hikes, supported single-payer health care, and supported an assault weapons ban. You’ve found your man in Donald Trump.
Or, if you chose the more conservative positions, you get this:
You got Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush is a conservative reformer for President who will actually get results. Like you, he supports cutting taxes, reducing spending, and limiting the role of the federal government in your life.
The 43rd Governor of Florida, Governor Bush balanced the budget and cut taxes every year for 8 years. He even earned the nickname “Veto Corleone” because he vetoed more than $2 billion of wasteful spending. Over his tenure, Bush governed as a pro-life conservative in a purple state—signing into law a partial-birth abortion ban and making Florida one of the most pro-Second Amendment states in the country.
