Jeb Bush entered the
2016 presidential election cycle with a plan.
The plan was to push aside the twice failed Mitt Romney. Once he stepped aside, it was assumed
everyone else, including Marco Rubio, would do the same.
The plan counted
heavily on Bush’s record as the governor of Florida, but nothing took into
account the candidacy of Donald Trump.
Bush confidants Sally Bradshaw and Mike Murphy were oblivious
to the New York real estate mogul who launched his campaign just one day after
Bush launched his.
Jeb struggled mightily to paint himself as his “own
man”. He never had a chance. He met his Waterloo trying to defend his
brother’s policies during an interview with Megyn Kelly when she asked, “On the
subject of Iraq…obviously very controversial.
Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?”
Jeb answered, “I would have, and so would have Hillary
Clinton, just to remind everybody, and so would have almost everybody that was
confronted with the intelligence they got.”
Asked if he thought it was a mistake Bush answered, “In retrospect the
intelligence that everybody saw, that the world saw, not just the United States
was faulty. And in retrospect, once we invaded and took out Saddam Hussein, we
didn’t focus on security first. And the Iraqis, in this incredibly insecure
environment, turned on the United States military because there was no security
for themselves and their families. By the way, guess who thinks that those
mistakes took place as well? George W. Bush. Yes, I mean, so just for the news
flash to the world, if they’re trying to find places where there’s big space
between me and my brother, this might not be one of those.”
His response was disastrous. During that week Jeb changed his answer five
times. Each walk-back answer was
clumsier than the one before it.
Even before the first
debate in August, Jeb commented that immigrants who come to the United States
illegally did so as an “act of love”.
Failing to calculate the blowback from that comment, Bush found himself
being peppered with questions from reporters.
His “comebacks” never seemed to materialize. By late August, Trump painted Bush as a “low
energy” candidate. The moniker stuck.
Bush
finished in sixth place in the Iowa Caucuses.
Then came New Hampshire which his campaign deemed was “make or break”. Poor Jeb placed fourth behind Kasich and
Cruz. The iconic moment of his campaign
came when Jeb literally begged for applause saying,
“Please clap.”
Jeb
saw his campaign logo mocked to a fare-thee-well. The exclamation point at the end of his name
began to appear limp and later changed to a question mark. By then the die was cast and the nation’s
attention was turned to South Carolina.
Bush pulled out all the stops. He
brought in his 90-year-old mother Barbara Bush.
On the eve of the South Carolina primary he brought in George and Laura
Bush to rescue his campaign. When he
lost on primary night he dropped out of the race.
Jeb spent $150 million in his bid for the presidency and failed
miserably.
Now Jeb is making a pathetic attempt at being relevant as the
GOP convention nears. The pain of being
trounced so soundly is showing.
Earlier this week, Jeb was interviewed
on MSNBC saying the “tragedy” of Trump’s nomination is that “there isn’t
going to be a wall built and Mexico’s not going to pay for it. And there’s not going to be a ban on Muslims…This
is all like an alternative universe…People are going to be deeply frustrated
and the divides will grow in our country…I think people are really going to
feel betrayed.”
Furthermore, baby Jebby asserted that Pope Francis intervened
in American politics. He was referring
to the Mass held at the US-Mexico border.
Bush, who is Catholic, said he [the Pope] had every right to preach the
Gospel there, but “I don’t think he should be intervening. I don’t know if he understood that he was
intervening in our political affairs.”
It wasn’t enough that Jeb got to spout off on MSNBC; he penned
an editorial for The
Washington Post.
“While he has no doubt
tapped into the anxiety so prevalent in the United States today, I do not
believe Donald Trump reflects the principles or inclusive legacy of the
Republican Party. And I sincerely hope he doesn’t represent its future.”
“As much as I reject
Donald Trump as our party leader, he did not create the political culture of
the United States on his own.”
“Eight years of the
divisive tactics of President Obama and his allies have undermined Americans’
faith in politics and government to accomplish anything constructive. The
president has wielded his power — while often exceeding his authority — to
punish his opponents, legislate from the White House and turn agency rulemaking
into a weapon for liberal dogma.”
“In turn, a few in
the Republican Party responded by trying to out-polarize the president, making
us seem anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker and
anti-common-sense.”
“The result has been
the vanishing of any semblance of compromise or bipartisanship in our nation’s
capital. Simple problems don’t get solved. Speeches happen; the important stuff
doesn’t. The failure of elected leaders to break the gridlock in Washington has
led to an increasingly divided electorate, which in turn has led to a breakdown
in our political system.”
“Unfortunately, the
understandable anger and fear haven’t given rise to a resurgence of purpose in
politics or renewed a debate in our party about how Republicans win back the
White House with the power of our ideas.”
“Instead, they have
given rise to the success of a candidate who continues to grotesquely
manipulate the deeply felt anger of many Americans. Trump’s abrasive, Know
Nothing-like nativist rhetoric has blocked out sober discourse about how to
tackle America’s big challenges.”
“And, on the left,
Hillary Clinton promises to continue the disastrous foreign and economic
policies of the Obama administration, as well as its hyper-partisanship. She
has gone as far as to say Republicans are her “enemy” —
a clear sign she doesn’t have any more interest in doing the hard work of
forging consensus than her former boss does.”
