So, who's spent what? Trump, $4 million; Cruz, $4.2 million, Bush . . . $58.8 million?

We've always known which candidate is the favorite of the Republican donor class, and supposedly Jeb Bush's access to cash was the reason he had to be considered one of the favorites - if not the favorite - for the nomination as this cycle began. Well, he certainly has raised the money, and he certainly has spent the money. So much money:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his super PAC, Right to Rise, have spent $58.8 million on the 2016 campaign, a recent analysis found. That’s almost $2 million more than the combined total of the next three biggest spenders (and their super PACs and outside supporters): Marco Rubio ($32.6 million), Hillary Clinton ($12.8 million), andBernie Sanders ($11.6 million). And what has this gotten the Bush campaign? Unfortunately for Mr. Bush, not all that much. The first Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling that included a trial heat of the Republican primary was in April 2015; it found Mr. Bush in the lead with 23% of the vote. In the January WSJ/NBC poll, Mr. Bush came in at 5%. Presumably more exasperating for the Bush campaign and its donors is that the relatively frugal campaigns of Donald Trump–someone not known for sparing expense–and Ted Cruz are leading the Republican field, having spent $4 million and $4.2 million, respectively. Jeb Bush’s personal ratings are net negative with Republican primary voters: 29% view him positively, but 36% have negative views of him. Conversely, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Trump, Mr. Rubio, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina were all viewed positively by at least 50% of Republican primary voters in the latest WSJ/NBC poll.

The WSJ story goes on to speculate that Jeb is a victim of an a Republican primary electorate characterized by anger and ideological extremism, which is supposedly a poor fit for his disposition and philosophy.

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But isn't a more likely explanation that he's just not a very good candidate? Jeb Bush can sit there all he wants to call Donald Trump a jerk, but if the electorate is angry it's because we have very serious problems in this country and no one in elected office seems interested in solving them. Bush does have some worthy ideas, but he spends more time chastising both the voters and the other candidates for either being too conservative or too much of a style Jeb seems to think is icky and inappropriate. The more you watch Jeb Bush, the more you get the impression that he's a guy who is oh-so-disappointed in all of you for the way you're approaching this, and he just wants to stand there and be sad and disapproving of all of it. If he wants to spend $58 million doing that, he's more than welcome to, but he's not going to buy himself many votes in the process. I always thought it was strange that more than a decade after the last time he ran for office, Bush thought he could just have the nomination handed to him - and I'm convinced he only thought that because of a) his last name; and b) what the donor class told him about their willingness to back him. What he apparently didn't think he needed to do was make a real compelling case for himself, because he sure hasn't, and just spending the most money doesn't make up for a failure that fundamental. The next time big-money political donors think about where they're going to put their money, maybe they should think a little more about what the people seem to want rather than trying to make sure the people don't get what they want. Because the Jeb disaster has been a pretty expensive lesson for them.