What Jeb said
Question to Jeb Bush: Knowing what we know now, would you have invaded Iraq?First day: 'I would have and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody. And so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got. In retrospect, the intelligence that everybody saw -- that the world saw, not just the United States -- was faulty. And in retrospect, once we invaded and took out Saddam Hussein, we didn't focus on security first, and the Iraqis in this incredibly insecure environment turned on the United States military because there was no security for themselves and their families.'Second day: 'I don't know what that decision would have been. That's a hypothetical.'Third day: 'So, going back in time and talking about hypotheticals -- what would have happened, what could have happened, I think, does a disservice for [the men and women who served in the conflict].'Later on the third day: 'Of course, given the power of looking back and having that -- of course anybody would have made different decisions.'Fourth day: 'Knowing what we know now, I would not have engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.'
It was a pretty simple question. "Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the use of force against Iraq," as your brother did in 2003?
In fact, all four times that Jeb Bush was asked that question earlier this week, it was a simple question. But he so complicated it.
He gave four different answers in four days.
Surely this must be a record.
Yes, bumbled answers are not unheard of, especially among untried politicians.
But Jeb Bush has lived in politics all of his life. Not just through his father, the long-time politician and former president, and his brother, the long-time politician and former president, but Jeb himself was a two-term governor of Florida -- our fourth most populous state. He is anything but a political novice.
And then there are all those advisers he has borrowed from all of those previous Bush campaigns and administrations. Did they not prepare him for this painfully obvious question?
Even brother George W. Bush acknowledged in his memoir: "There are things we got wrong in Iraq."
And remember who Jeb told reporters would be his top adviser on the Middle East? That's right. His brother, George W., of course.
But finally on Thursday Jeb seemed to get it right. He seemed to come at long last to the answer critics even in his own party thought he needed to give to the "What-would-Jeb-do" question:
"Knowing what we know now, I would not have engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq," Jeb finally managed to spit out of his mouth.
Some pundits might think that on that first day Jeb Bush was so busy being political and trying to burn Hillary Clinton, that he didn't pay attention to the entire question Fox News' Megyn Kelly asked him. In fact, he said the next day that he didn't hear the "knowing-what-we-know-now" clause.
And he probably didn't. After all, his head was crammed with talking points -- things like: Any question about Iraq must be linked with Hillary. She voted for the war.
The truth is far simpler. In a field of at least 20 GOP presidential wanna-bes, Jeb Bush (and all of the other candidates) just want to know what each herd of groupies wants to hear so he can say it. The real problem is all those pesky cameras and microphones and soundbites. In this digital world, we all hear every answer, no matter how bumbled and bungled.
The only other (so far) memorable thing Jeb Bush has said in this campaign cycle is that he is his "own man."
This week's answers to a very simple question have to make us wonder long and hard about that.