Today's piece in the Financial Times by Andrew Ward is a nice succinct summary of the pro-Jeb gameplan that we are going to be seeing unfold over the next year and a half.
As his first step, just as his brother is crapping out bigtime, Jeb is going into a phase of introspective retreat...
"...to take some time off to reflect on what I should be doing and not rush into the next thing..."
One could call this the "Al Gore Himalayan option". Gore began his own Amero-vision-quest after the 2000 election with the preemptive and only mildly coerced declaration of "it's time for me to go."
The corresponding retreat by Jeb will presumably allow him to formulate an even higher form of Leadership Wisdom than he already possesses. Once he is rested, he can return to the public eye bearing a burnished new vision for the country. His voluntary retreat will give him the authenticity he needs to receive the People's annointing as its new "American prophet". The GOP base will be pining for him. He will seem fresh, as Gore did (It seems unlikely that Jeb will need to grow facial hair, but that is always an option).
The Al Gore path is ripe for emulation by a Republican. The Right will copy and employ anything that the Left does successfully. Because the Right is essentially aristocratic in its soul, it cannot directly connect to the true "vibe of the People", but can only emulate the shadow of Popular thought. The Right is extremely conscious of their own need to steal from the Left, and by extension to "market their ideas". This probably explains why lately, at least until the last election cycle, the Right has been much better at ripping off the successes of their opponents than has the Left.
Of course, the "retreat to success" is an old political maneuver. Only the Gore post-millennial "Whole Earth" spin on it is new. The Right is interested only in emulating what worked well lately.