Jeb Bush Reveals His Own- and His Party's- Hollowness

I guess everyone that would be reading this blog has heard about Jeb Bush's colossal failure this week in dealing with one of his brother's two great legacies as President- the Iraq invasion and the disaster that followed.

This guy has been apparently preparing to run for President for a couple of years now, if courting the backing of the super-rich is any indication, but apparently, his preparation to hold this office doesn't extend to putting in enough time to think about how he feels about the most obvious question he will ever be asked: would he have precipitated the same calamity as his brother did.  Asked the question on Fox News this Monday, he had this appalling answer:

MEGAN KELLY: "On the subject of Iraq... obviously very controversial. Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?" 

BUSH: "I would have..."

Well, by Wednesday, he was furiously trying to back out of that, claiming that he somehow misheard the question:

"...given the power of looking back and having that, of course anybody would have made different decisions. There's no denying that."

He also managed that day to engage in one of the most nauseating specimens of hiding behind the troops to shut up the people who realized the insanity of his Monday response:

"(Bush) did not go so far as to say the war was a mistake, arguing that hypothetical questions about what he would have done are a disservice to the soldiers that fought and died in the conflict."

And Finally, on Friday:

"knowing what we know now, ...I would not have engaged.  I would not have gone into Iraq,"

Over the course of the last four days, Bush has actually managed to take four, or perhaps five positions on this question.

I bring this up, not to make the obvious point that this guy is a lying weasel just like his brother, but to make a broader point:  On even the most obvious and relevant questions, Republican Presidential candidates, even the so-called serious ones, don't give a damn about the issues that affect this country. They only care about finding the right words to snake-charm the voters, and they will try anything on until they find the right phrase that works for them.  It is not that the Republicans are not a serious party- they are as serious as a cyanide pill.  It's just that what they are serious about is delivering the country lock stock and barrel to a couple hundred rich psychopaths, so it can be turned into a third world slave state.  And that's really not a winning platform, even to their base.

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