Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush

Man, Jeb Bush is takingthe popular positions. In an appearance on CBS News' Face the Nation in which he hilariously insisted he hasn't yet decided if he's running for president and that, "if" he does, his campaign won't coordinate with the super PAC for which he is so enthusiastically fundraising now, Bush added to his pile of quotes about what he's learned from his brother George W. on Iraq and discussed his plan for attacking Social Security.

Bush insisted that "my brother is not going to be a problem at all. I seek out his advice. I love him dearly. I have learned from his successes and his mistakes." Wait a second—a Bush admitting that another Bush made mistakes? Go on ...



Well, the successes clearly are protecting the homeland. We were under attack, and he brought -- he unified the country and he showed dogged determination. And he kept us safe.

And I think I learned also from not having -- keeping the reins on spending. Because of the war and because of the focus on protecting the homeland, I think he let the Republican Congress get a little out of control in terms of the spending.

Ah, yes, the old "George W.'s job 'keeping us safe' started immediately after the 9/11 attacks, which don't count," to say nothing of the view that the Iraq War did anything to keep the United States safe. But about those mistakes:Riiight. "He let the Republican Congress get a little out of control." They just ran roughshod over the poor guy, who would never have spent all those billions on his own war of choice. So we can infer that Jeb Bush will go to war, he'll just somehow be more thrifty about it.

George W.'s wars weren't the only unpopular policy for which Jeb reiterated his support. He also advocated raising the retirement age for the "supplemental retirement system" (that would be Social Security—words he carefully avoided using, and more than a supplement for too many Americans) to 68 or 70, which prompts me to advocate for him to go out and lay bricks or clean hotel rooms for a few months and see how it feels for him now, at 62, and look forward to how it would feel at 68 or 70.