I had always thought that the Republican nomination was Jeb Bush’s to lose and the last few days it appears he may have succeeded in doing just that. His nemesis is the Iraq war. Josh Marshall:
More than a decade after President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), ended up in his own Iraq quagmire this week.
The likely presidential contender for months somehow had managed to avoid talking much about his older brother even as he began to steam toward a White House bid.
But after the Washington Post reported last week that Jeb Bush told a group of financiers that he still turns to his brother for advice on the Middle East, it wasn’t long before he faced questions over his brother’s legacy and the Iraq War.
What followed was a pile-on from critics, a moment of triumph for his rivals, and an eventual walkback.
The smarter brother? Jeb Bush may be able to speak in complete sentences but what he has to say makes no more sense than what W said in his phony Texas hillbilly. His walkbacks have only made things worse and only given his opponents ammunition.
No way were Bush’s potential rivals for 2016 going to waste this moment: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) leaned into his critique.
Not only did Christie tell CNN on Tuesday that he would not have ordered an invasion knowing what we know now, he also came back to the topic on Wednesday, slamming Bush for being unclear.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was also unequivocal: “Of course not,” he told Megyn Kelly in Tuesday interview.
And later on Wednesday, presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called the invasion of Iraq a “mistake,” even as “a hypothetical.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined him shortly after.
Even Ohio Gov. Kasich (R) jumped into the fray.
“There’s a lot of people who lost limbs and lives over there, OK?” he said on Tuesday. “But if the question is, if there were not weapons of mass destruction should we have gone, the answer would’ve been no.”
Even ignoring Iraq I for one cannot forget Jeb’s involvement in the Terri Shiavo debacle that was opposed by a majority of Americans including many in the right to life community.
I am beginning to think that Ohio governor John Kasich is perhaps the only hope the Republicans have of retaking the White House but I doubt he can survive the Republican primaries.