Jeb: It’s too early for poll-watching

Jeb Bush on Wednesday expressed frustration with the press over its obsession with the horse race aspect of the presidential race, telling reporters that it’s too early to be poll-watching and encouraged them to focus on more important matters.

Speaking to a gaggle of reporters on a sidewalk in Germany, Bush said he was “not at all concerned” by expectations from some Republicans that he should have further separated himself from the field of GOP contenders by now.

“I just encourage people to be a little more patient about this,” Bush said. “Ya’ll cover this kind of in the here and now, and who is winning and who is losing. It’s important, and I have to respect that, but if you have a strategy and you think about it over the long haul is a better approach, at least for me.”

“Anybody have any questions about Germany?” Bush asked, nodding to the surrounding environment.

Bush has not officially entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but he’s widely expected to make it official on Monday in Miami.

Bush has spent the past six months building a political team, amassing a huge campaign fund for his super-PAC, giving policy speeches, attending Republican cattle calls and seeking to curry favor with party leaders.

His name recognition and deep political ties have buoyed him in the early polls, but some conservatives question whether that support is durable. Bush faces deep skepticism from many in the party’s base, and stiff competition from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Marco Rubio.

“I don’t read the polls,” Bush said Wednesday. “Polls are, you know, it’s fun to see them when you’re winning, not as much when you’re not. It doesn’t really matter though. It’s June for crying out loud, so we have a long way to go.”

The state of Bush’s campaign came into focus this week when he reshuffled his staff ahead of a five-day trip to Germany, Poland and Estonia.

Earlier this year, Bush brought on David Kochel, an Iowa GOP operative, for a leading role in his super-PAC, Right to Rise, with the intent of moving him over to campaign manager once he launched.

But this week, the Bush team announced that instead, Kochel would serve as chief strategist to the campaign, and Danny Diaz, an aggressive 39-year-old opposition researcher and conservative media consultant, would be the campaign manager.

The move stoked stories of struggle within the campaign and provoked questions over whether the Bush team was hitting the panic button at an early stage.

The former Florida governor downplayed the staff changes on Wednesday.

“This is an adjustment based on the skills of people that I’ve gotten to know over the past few months,” Bush said.

“Nothing other than just the magnitude of the journey [provoked this change],” he continued. “You have the real focus on four states in February, and you have the avalanche of states after that, and you think about how to organize all of that, how to develop the messaging part of this, the scheduling part of this. It’s an overwhelming challenge. So I decided to split up the duties, and David has great success in these early states, particularly Iowa, and he has a great strategic mind, and Danny is a grinder.”