Jeb Bush asks silent crowd to 'please clap' his speech

If you have to ask an audience to clap for you, you know your presidential campaign is not going well.

In what has to be the lowest point of Jeb Bush's run for the White House, video has emerged showing the excruciating moment he begged a silent crowd for applause.

"I think the president needs to be a lot quieter," Bush said.

"But send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interest of this country to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world."

After a gap of silence after his attempt at soaring rhetoric, his arms drop dolefully to his side.

"Please clap," he murmurs.

His audience obliges half-heartedly, but only after a burst of laughter first.

The son and brother of two former presidents, Bush was considered to be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, leading in the polls up until July.

But Donald Trump's entrance into the race proved devastating, with fierce attacks on the former Florida governor scattering his supporters.

In the end, he ended up with 2.8 percent in Monday's Iowa caucus, spending $2800 for every vote he received.

The only candidate with a worse expenditure-to-vote ratio was former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, who spent more than $100,000 and ended up with a grand total of 12 votes.

Bush is now campaigning in New Hampshire, where polls show him struggling to break into double digits.

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