Who knew that right wing debate moderator Hugh Hewitt might end up asking one of the better questions of the night of these GOP candidates, and that's "Who is advising you on foreign policy?" and Jeb Bush on his "big elephant in the room" which is his last name.
Bush of course did his best to try to defend himself and his brother and this ridiculous line was met by huge applause in the St. Ronnie Ray Gun Library this Wednesday: Jeb Bush defends brother, says George W. Bush ‘kept us safe’:
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush defended his brother, former President George W. Bush, against criticism from Donald Trump Wednesday night, saying “he kept us safe.”
“Your brother and your brother’s administration gave us Barack Obama,” Mr. Trump taunted the former Florida governor. “It was such a disaster those last three months [of George W. Bush’s administration] that Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have been elected.”
Jeb Bush retorted, “As it relates to my brother, there’s one thing I know for sure: he kept us safe.” The audience at the debate cheered.
“You remember the rubble [at the World Trade Center]?” Mr. Bush asked. “He sent a clear signal that the United States would be strong, and fight Islamic terrorism, and he did keep us safe.”
Mr. Trump replied, “You feel safe right now? I don’t feel so safe.”
Bush has been all over the map with the defense of his brother since he announced his campaign:
He then went on to talk about Sept. 11, even though it’s clear years later that the decision to go to war in Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center. “I don’t know if you remember, Donald. You remember the rubble? You remember the firefighter with his arms around it? He sent a clear signal that the United States would be strong and fight Islamic terrorism and he did keep us safe.”
Bush has oscillated on his brother’s foreign policy record over the course of his campaign. He’s both said he would not have gone into Iraq and also that the war that cost billions was a “good deal.” Many of Jeb Bush’s foreign policy advisers also advised his brother. Today, George W. Bush is one of the country’s least popular ex-presidents.
Scott Walker did his best to get in on some of the action before Bush made a bigger fool of himself, saying that we needed some sort of "forces agreement" before we pulled out of Iraq, forgetting of course that it was his brother's Status of Forces Agreement that the Obama administration was following when they pulled out troops out of Iraq in the first place.
The revisionist history is strong with this one. I don't think he's going to make it out of the GOP primary race, but if he does, treating the public like a bunch of idiots that can't remember what happened when his brother was in office isn't going to go over too well with the majority of the electorate that isn't insane and still remembers the damage that his brother did to the United States in the general election.
