Trump vs. Bush: 9/11

How pathetic for @realdonaldtrump to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe.

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 16, 2015

Donald Trump just crossed what has been something of a political red-line in acknowledging that George W. Bush was president during 9/11 and maybe could have seen the attack coming and didn't keep us safe. (He also pointed out that a hurricane nearly wiped a major city away--again, American people weren't "kept safe"--there was a tragedy, then a slow, grinding, and not necessarily efficient response.)

Jeb Bush's response is to call this "pathetic" and insist his brother "kept us safe".

Kept who safe?

I think Trump is bombastic and have a problem accepting his seriousness. I don't know to what extent he understands the ins-and-outs of public service, and given that he would've left afflicted doctors who contracted ebola behind, well, he's not a model of overflowing selfless compassion--but do I think the Bushes, as a clan, are singularly incapable of understanding that you specifically address a problem and solve it and you do not find another thing to do and then flog it because you don't know how in the hell to fix the problem you ignored until it became tragic. Giving medals to Jerry Bremer, George Tenant, and saying "Heckuva job, Brownie" all kind of suggested someone who would nod at the fuck-ups to the extent that they protected number one--Bush himself.

Jeb Bush can't admit that George Bush's style of management is a big part of why the "War on Terror" became a campaign against an idea with a raft of tactics attached, not an approach to a problem that started with recognizing the terrorism threat in the first place and followed up with a strategy to combat terrorism based on and building on successful strategies in the past.

Donald Trump knew to go there. He crossed that line and is not in a place where criticizing GWB will hurt him. It won't. He criticized John McCain's "heroism". We know he has discovered a different way of campaigning based on giving no fucks. But the thing of it is, Jeb Bush was certain that "his brother kept us safe" would really sound right. Sure, it was said on the right for the longest time. It never was really true. But believing it would never be challenged left him with a half-hearted response. You can't say these things unless you believe them. How do you do that? It's not so.

And Jeb is still surrounded by his brother's continent of broken foreign policy advisors. An island of misfit political toys.

The house of Bush delenda est.