Jeb Bush Debates Jeb Bush. Guess Who Lost?

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Jeb Bush predictably has to receive the hot potato that was Emperor Bush II’s invasion of Iraq. He decided he would be tactically supportive of his familial predecessor to the Royal Throne of The American Empire in an interview with Megan Kelly.

This greatly miffed the vast pits of lucre that bankroll the Bush Royal Line. He then went over to Sean Hannity and bravely ran from his previous position.

“I interpreted the question wrong, I guess,” Bush told Sean Hannity in a radio interview. “I was talking about given what people knew then, would you have done it, rather than knowing what we know now. And knowing what we know now, you know, clearly there were mistakes.”

The rest of the GOP field had no such difficulty handling the question. For them, it was an easy ground ball handled with an adroit scoop and a proforma throw to the 1st Baseman. Nobody else running for the GOP nomination would do exactly what George W. Bush did if they were equipped with the perfect information that comes with hindsight and then sent back in a time machine to play POTUS.

In the last 48 hours or so, we’ve seen Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100%, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio (R-FL) 100%, Ben Carson, and John Kasich all say that—knowing what we know now—the war was a mistake. And, of course, Rand Paul (R-KY) 80% has been pushing this line all along (without any need of the “knowing what we know now” caveat). Jeb lagged far behind the rest of the field on what should have been an easy question.

The real problem here was one of blood loyalty. Jeb was conflicted over whether he could knife his brother Bush II in order to wear the crown and be Bush III. He had a situation in which familial loyalty was placed in opposition to the good of the order.

But of course—because the man who ordered the invasion was his brother—Jeb finds himself in a unique situation. And so, he spent several news cycles failing to adequately answer a serious question about what might be the most important foreign policy decision of the early 21st century.

So let me ask the question Matt Lewis and The Daily Beast were too nice to ask. If Jeb refuses to diss W when the political situation calls for it; will he have the guts to at least temporarily sever family ties when the Geopolitical situation so requires? My, that was a nasty question. Have I no decency?*

Oh well, I guess not. That question is totally fair game if we seriously wish to contemplate putting Jeb in charge. Jeb doesn’t deserve a pass because GWB was his brother. It is no more constructive than giving Barack Obama a “Get Out of Criticism Free” Card because of prior historical racism against African-Americans. Jeb has to deal with the family thing the same way his brother did when he disagreed with President Dad on abortion.

Jeb’s connection to a successful father and a successful brother have been a tremendous advantage to him for much of his life. Now they become a disadvantage. One of his major issues going forward will be whether and how he deals with the legacies of two family members who preceded him in the quest to be POTUS. It’s a tough issue. It’s another good reason to stop electing people whose ancestors** have held the job.

*-Not my job. I just blog here.
**-Or Spousal Units …..

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