Jeb has gone from replacing his surname with an exclamation point to putting exclamation points before, after and all around that surname.

And this was clearer than ever on Saturday night, when he spanked Trump for whacking Bushes.

“He has had the gall to go after my mother,” Bush marveled, adding: “Look, I won the lottery when I was born 63 years ago, looked up, and I saw my mom.” He called his father “the greatest man alive, in my mind” and said that his older brother deserved credit for “building a security apparatus to keep us safe.”

Rubio lined up with him: “I thank God all the time it was George W. Bush in the White House on 9/11 and not Al Gore.”

“How did he keep us safe?” Trump asked. “The World Trade Center came down.” The audience booed.

If the pro-military Republican electorate of South Carolina is moved by the Bush legacy, Jeb may have done himself some real good.

He needed to. South Carolina is an especially crucial contest for him. A clear fourth-place finish, especially if Rubio takes third, would probably be the end of his candidacy, whether he formally exited the race or not.

Did Rubio repair the damage from the prior debate?

Some of it, yes. He was so careful to avoid repeating himself or inserting too many of his most frequently used, obviously canned lines that the prebaked blather of other candidates — Trump in particular — came into starker relief.

“Win-win-win,” Trump stuttered, along with “deal-deal-deal.” And of course there was his maddeningly vague pledge to “make America great again,” which I’ve now heard even more often than the Adele single “Hello.”