Jeb Bush Is Even Nuttier Than Trump Now

[DonViejo]

Michael Daly

By blaming President Obama and Hillary Clinton for the sorry state of Iraq and the rise of ISIS, Jeb Bush seems to be forgetting a little detail called … his brother.

Donald Trump’s remarks about Megyn Kelly still make him the most vulgar of the Republican presidential candidates.

But he is no longer the nuttiest.

That distinction was claimed by Jeb Bush in a speech at the Reagan Library, when he declared that President Obama and Hillary Clinton are to blame for the rise of ISIS.

Jeb being the brother of the guy who used 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq in the first place, a venture that then-Senator Barack Obama opposed.

Six weeks after the opening “shock and awe” bombardment, President George Bush declared in a speech from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln that the “major combat operations” in Iraq had ended in victory.

“Mission Accomplished,” read the big banner in the background.

Thousands of deaths later, the war was still raging and proving to be unwinnable.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/12/jeb-bush-is-even-nuttier-than-trump-now.html

[BillZBubb]

1. Yep, but what else can he do?

He's got to shift the stink of his brother's asinine and immoral actions onto someone else. Otherwise his chances of winning an election are ZERO. He's definitely nutty if he thinks he can pull that off.

[MoonchildCA]

2. What's even worse than being his brother...

...Is that he has the same foreign policy advisors as W did.

He hired the same people that orchestrated one of the worst foreign policy mistakes this country has ever made advising him on foreign policy.

The irony of the situation goes even deeper than blaming Obama and Hillary Clinton for what his brother did. He is now directly connected to it as well.

[DirkGently]

3. Mind-boggling pivots are a Republican staple.

- People are poor not because they are underpaid, or because education is too expensive, but because they're not permitted to "work more."

- Bean-sized fetuses are people but pregnant women are not.

- The fake Iraq intelligence Cheney cooked up to fool people with was "the best information available," because it fooled people.

- We must all carry guns everywhere like idiots, because idiots are carrying guns everywhere.


So, yes, it's eye-wateringly dumb, but,

"Iraq is a mess not because we started a gigantic, destructive war under false pretenses under the previous Bush administration, sowing chaos throughout the region and destroying any semblance of order, but because Obama finally got us out, on exactly the timeline the Bush administration had agreed to"

is about par for Republicans in general. I don't think the base will have any problem swallowing it, just like they swallowed Cheney's "aluminum tubes" story.

[maddiemom]

4. Wonderful post, Dirkgently!

I'm sure that by next year Repugs will have weaseled around to blame Obama for the entire Iraq debacle. The fault was in pulling troops out on the agreed timeline and please forget the idiot Bush who started the the whole tragic and useless thing (being a War President is the key to being a successful POTUS). Was anybody paying serious attention at the time?

[DirkGently]

5. I remember W. gloating about being a "War President."

It sounded like something one of his elders (Poppy?) told him once, and it stuck.

His idiocy was painful, for all of us.

[sendero]

6. And the sad fact is...

.. they know that there is a large portion of their party's base, plus a portion of other Americans, who will buy into the bullshit just because they don't WANT to believe that Bush was responsible for this mess. Many people will believe almost anything that fits neatly into their existing belief system.

Delusion is a very powerful human emotion/coping-mechanism and everyone has to be on guard against it at all times.

[DirkGently]

7. An important point. Mostly we fool OURSELVES.

A lot of what we perceive as lies people believe are largely rationalizations people *choose* to believe. We all do it to one extent or another.

Republicans are pretty good at homing in on people's fears and getting them to sign off on whatever madness they want as an excuse.

Climate change denial works like this. No one started with a comparison of the credibility of scientists, compared it to the credibility of politicians and energy companies, and concluded the scientists must be lying for money. Some people hate environmentalism, or think it's too expensive to act upon, so they jump on whatever rationalization is handy.

At some point, you have to go after the underlying fear driving the rationale. Otherwise, any excuse will do to go to war or let the planet burn or anything else.

[lpbk2713]

8. Desperation will do that.

"Mom always liked you best."

[ericson00]

9. for all of Trump's comments, this is why Bush might be easier than Trump

perfect example there