Implied in the claim that Bush “kept us safe” is that there weren’t any other attacks during his tenure. But that isn’t true either. Bush did not keep America safe from the 17 people killed by the Beltway snipers, or from whoever sent anthrax through the U.S. postal system. Bush didn’t protect us from the man who tried to light an explosive in his shoe on a December 2001 flight, though that plot failed due to the terrorist’s incompetence or bad luck. He did not keep us safe from the Egyptian gunman that killed two and injured four at LAX in 2002. He did not keep us safe from the gunman who attacked the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in 2006. He did preside over a period in which there wasn’t another 9/11 scale attack—but that is true of literally every other president in the history of the United States of America. Bush presided over one 9/11; all the other presidents presided over zero combined.

Neither did Bush do all he could to keep Americans safe during and after Hurricane Katrina, even if one reasonably attributes most blame to state and local officials.

Reuters

Jeb Bush’s illogic here cannot be dismissed as throw-away Tweets.

“Do you think it’s at all possible that your loyalty to your brother, while admirable on a personal level, might be in some ways a political or policy liability, blinding you to mistakes he made?” Jake Tapper asked the candidate last week in a CNN interview.

The exchange that followed was one of Jeb’s logical breakdowns.

“No, I mean so, next week Mr. Trump is probably going to say that FDR was around when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.” But FDR was around when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor! Why can’t Jeb Bush express himself with precision on this subject?

The candidate continued, “It’s what you do after that matters, that’s the sign of leadership. It’s not the, uh, does anybody really blame my brother for the attacks on 9/11? If they do, they’re totally marginalized in our society. It’s what he did afterward that matters, I’m proud of him, and so are a lot of other people. You don’t have to have your last name be Bush to be able to understand that. And it calls into question Mr. Trump’s credibility as a commander in chief and the architect of the next generation of foreign policy, which we desperately need in this country.”

Jeb Bush, who signed the neoconservative Project for a New American Century blueprint for American foreign policy and now says that the Iraq War was a mistake, isn’t in a position to lecture anyone about their credibility as a foreign-policy architect. But what’s most remarkable about that exchange is the “it’s what you do after that matters” line. If Jeb Bush is the nominee, his opponent will seize on it.

Imagine Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or Bernie Sanders on stage in a general election debate:

“Jeb, I was absolutely shocked to hear you tell Jake Tapper that a good leader needn’t stop a 9/11-style attack––as you said on CNN, ‘it’s what you do after that matters.’ Frankly, I don’t want a president who thinks he can be a good leader while failing to prevent 3,000 Americans from being murdered as long as he responds well afterward. My standard of success as president will be preventing mass murder.”