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Jeb! Bush is sad over a television ad that dares question his assertion that his brother George W. "kept us safe." But he can't just be sad -- he also has to be dishonest about the ad's source, tweeting at Hillary Clinton that "Your political machine's 9/11 ad is disgraceful. As a New Yorker you know the leadership my brother provided after 9/11."
The "after" in that sentence is funny, since Jeb's whole "he kept us safe" schtick is based on the idea that 9/11 shouldn't in any way count against his brother's record of actually keeping us safe. But the ad also points out little things like economic devastation, the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, and, of course, the human cost of a war of choice. (Video below the fold.)
Here's another funny thing: Americans United for Change, the group that put out the ad, dates to 2005, well before Hillary Clinton was running for president, and was formed to push back on George W. Bush's attempts to privatize Social Security. During W's presidency, Americans United also pushed for an end to the Iraq war, and has been chugging along steadily promoting progressive positions on a range of issues -- from taxing the rich to renewable fuel standards -- and criticizing a lot of Republicans, not just ones hoping to get to run against Hillary Clinton. Highlighting the last disastrous Bush presidency is right in the group's wheelhouse for reasons that have nothing to do with Clinton.
In fact, the ad isn't even really an attack on Jeb. It's a reminder of what the last Bush presidency brought us, for sure, but it's as much a reminder of what the last Republican presidency meant for the country. And it's still a valid reminder if the Republican nominee in 2016 is Donald Trump or Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina.
