The news today is that Jeb Bush doesn’t even seem to be trying to run for president. When asked about the latest (45th this year, and counting) school shooting, he replied:
We’re in a difficult time in our country and I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this, I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else. But I resist the notion—and I had this challenge as governor—because we had—look, stuff happens, there’s always a crisis. And the impulse is always to do something and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.
When asked later if his saying “stuff happens” was a mistake, Bush got defensive and responded:
No, it wasn’t a mistake. I said exactly what I said. Why would you explain to me what I said wrong? Things happen all the time — things — is that better?
You can watch him make both statements on video.
Where was this Jeb “stuff happens” Bush during the Terry Schiavo case, when he intervened in a deeply personal tragedy, and overruled multiple court decisions to order a brain-dead woman’s feeding tube surgically reinserted over the wishes of her and her husband. When nine people are shot in cold blood, he doesn’t think more government is the answer, but he got a new law passed just to keep force feeding Schiavo.
Or when some right-to-life group makes misleadingly edited videos about Planned Parenthood and Republicans start screaming about how we need to pass laws to make abortions illegal (even though the Supreme Court ruled such laws unconstitutional), or at least make them much harder to get, will Jeb now tell them that “stuff happens” and they should chill out?
And I’m now waiting for Jeb Bush to tell the Benghazi committee that is supposedly investigating the death of four Americans, that “stuff happens” and we don’t need any more investigations into it.
But absolutely most importantly, after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, shouldn’t Jeb Bush have told his brother (the president) that “stuff happens” and that invading Iraq (a country that had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks) was not “necessarily the answer to this”? Instead Jeb Bush is to this day still defending his brother’s actions.
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That nut didn’t fall far from this Bush…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/us/nationalspecial/barbara-bush-calls-evacuees-better-off.html?_r=0
Is it a coincidence that earlier in the day Donald Trump said “things happen” about the shooting. Then later Bush says “stuff happens” and when ask if it was a mistake, corrects it to “things happen”.
Is his new strategy to just repeat things that Trump says? If so, he isn’t even doing a very good job of that.
Just me: Yes, that was my first thought was Mother Barbara’s comment after Katrina. Seems her son George thought the same thing as he totally neglected New Orleans “You are doing a good job, Brownie.” An the National Guard was off in Iraq for some stupid reason.
Clearly, there is nothing whatever that JEB can do or say, even if elected president, which would in any way affect the frequency of mass shootings while also keeping the GOP political base happy. The correct thing for him to say would be, “As long as the laws remain the same, we will continue to have the same results. And I am not about to antagonize the National Rifle Association or anyone else who interprets the 2nd amendment as meaning everybody physically able to load and carry one (except convicted felons, of course) should be allowed to own as many loaded weapons as they can afford.”