Bush's new campaign revamp has little impact on social media

[November 03, 2015]  By Angela Moon
 
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's attempt to revive a campaign hit in recent weeks by falling opinion poll numbers and drooping fundraising did little to improve sentiment toward him on social media, signaling even more hardship for the struggling candidate.

Hashtags such as "JebCanFixIt" started actively trending on social media on Monday shortly after the former Florida governor launched a "Jeb Can Fix It Tour" and released an e-book that revealed a more personal side of him.

But the reaction was more negative than positive, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

The Thomson Reuters social media sentiment analysis tool, which tracks positive tweets versus negative tweets on certain topics showed negative mentions outnumbered positive ones on Bush by a ratio of 1.2 to 1 by noon EST (1700 GMT) on Monday.

Bush has been subject to criticism on social media in recent weeks, especially after a dismal performance at a Republican presidential debate last week in Colorado. It was an added burden for a candidate once considered the favorite for the nomination to represent the Republican Party in the November 2016 election.

Bush's social media sentiment score started off in May at negative 7.1 on average but improved to negative 6.2 in June and negative 4.9 in July. His score dropped to negative 10.9 in August but recovered to negative 8.7 in September before falling again to negative 10.8 in October, according to Thomson Reuters data. For graphics, see http://link.reuters.com/tub95w .

Among responses on Twitter, American actor and comedian Steve Crowder, whose Twitter handle is "@scrowder," wrote: "'Jeb Can Fix It' - said no one other than Jeb Bush."

But Marc C Johnson (@TheJohnsonPost) tweeted, "While everyone is writing his obit, I'm not so sure that Jeb! is toast."

Billionaire and former reality TV star Donald Trump, long the party front-runner, also took to Twitter to express his opinion on Bush's campaign reboot on Monday.

Tweeted Trump: "Jeb's new slogan - 'Jeb can fix it.' I never thought of Jeb as a crook! Stupid message, the word 'fix' is not a good one to use in politics!"

(Additional reporting by Melissa Fares; Data compiled by Connie Yee, Thomson Reuters F&R; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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