“He gets criticized for being low-key, but as a farmer I try to stay low-key and not get easily wound up,” said Gary Schroeder, who heard Mr. Bush speak on Monday night in Goose Lake, Iowa. “After 40 years of farming, I like that.”
Mr. Schroeder shook his head at Mr. Bush’s predicament, saying: “You wouldn’t think with all the money, he’d be sitting at 4 percent.”
.. But his expressions of confidence can sound as though Mr. Bush is reassuring himself. “As people get closer, they’re going to want to know who has the leadership skills to actually be president, not to feed on people’s fears, not to turn a phrase in a way that gets people all riled up,” he said in Iowa, where the first votes in the nominating race will be cast in less than eight weeks. “We’re electing a president. And it’s a pretty serious job, and it requires serious leadership skills.”
.. One reason for Mr. Bush’s lack of traction, polling suggests, is that immigration continues to be a deal-breaker with the Republican base. Large majorities in both Iowa and New Hampshire say they will only choose a candidate who agrees with them on the issue — and those majorities do not share Mr. Bush’s support for a path to legal status for people in the United States illegally.
.. Mr. Bush’s sustained rough patch comes as his donors are set to gather in Miami this weekend for a quarterly retreat. Privately, donors and Bush supporters concede they are worried about Mr. Bush’s downward trajectory and had expected his numbers to start ticking up by now.