JEB BUSH SAYS “HE’S HIS OWN GUY”, I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT!

 

Jeb’s speech on global affairs was a bizarre affair .

 

Well, I guess Jeb Bush is almost, officially in the race for the Republican nomination to become a third Bush in the White House.

Looking back at his brother George, Jeb, whose actual name is “John Ellis Bush”, has some of the traits that made George seem to be one of those “guys you want to have a beer with”, but Jeb is not quite there.

Just as George W., could twist around some words or sentences, Jeb’s speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs luncheon, was anything but professional and definitely not well rehearsed.  He started by misstating and referring to Iran, as Iraq.

He confused items similar to the ways of his father’s awkward oratory and to his brother’s mangled syntax.  He tried to say that he loved his dad, his brother and his mother, but he was his own man and a totally different person from his family and had very different views.  Really?

Just as his brother George called things that were “nuclear”, “nucular”, so does Jeb. 

 

As hard as he tried to differentiate himself from George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Jeb came across as just another stamped out Bushie.  As one Washington Post writer stated, “He hunched over the lectern with both hands on it, but instead of exuding folksiness, as his brother does, he oozed discomfort.”

It is obvious that he is running high or in first place in many of the early polls, due mainly to his famous last name.  But in the GOP’s future primary debates, the name Bush could quickly become an albatross.  Especially if Jeb’s brothers disastrous Iraq tenure is remembered along with the catastrophic economic collapse of the Great Recession that occurred on brother George’s watch.

I also find it interesting that for his global foreign advisors, Jeb is going straight to some of brother George’s major disasters such as Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Hadley, and Meghan O’Sullivan.  In fact, all but four of Jeb’s foreign policy advisers served under either his brother, or his father.  One of them even worked for Ronald Reagan.

What could really be devastating for Jeb is how the herd of potential Republican nominees will be going after him during the GOP primary debates.  It’s pretty obvious that even though Jeb is going to be able to collect vast amounts of campaign donations, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Chris Christie and Ted Cruz will try to attach Jeb to brother George and some of the biggest political failures in US history.

Yes, listening to Jeb did bring back shuddering similarities to the previous Bush administrations.  For example, Jeb had stated that one of his top priorities would be, “reforming a broken immigration system and turning it into an economic…..a catalytic converter for sustained economic growth.”

Apparently he was thinking of the word, “catalyst”, but instead, as happened sometimes with brother George, this time he miss-used the name of an automotive smog control component. 

I think Jeb is already being badly advised.  Even though he says he’s “his own man”, he used words and phrases that his brother has used.  He used phrases such as “enemies of freedom” and “tighten the noose” and “take them out,” and he defended the surge in Iraq.  His strange way of speaking was reminiscent of Dubya Bush when Jeb declared that “whoever created the terminology BRIC would have to change the name.”   As it was many times with George W, Jeb then failed to explain that the acronym BRIC referred to the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

After Jeb’s speech, there was an audience Question and Answer period.  That was a very painful part of the event.  His answers were sometimes rambling and he was unable to actually give complete responses.  For instance, when asked about the weakening of nation states in the Middle East, he responded: “I don’t have a solution. I mean, I—I—I’ve read articles, you know, about whether the 1915 kind of breakout of the Middle East and how that no longer is a viable deal.” Huh?

We all learned some time ago that perhaps electing the “guy you would want to have a beer with” might not have been the best idea for electing a chief executive.  I don’t think we should give that concept another opportunity, especially for someone with the last name of Bush.

Copyright G.Ater  2015