"Holy Schnikes," It's Jeb Bush!

You could hear the air in the inflated balloon of Jeb Bush's presidential campaign leak out rather noisily as he made his debut foreign policy speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

As Dana Milbank ruthlessly pointed out in the Washington Post, the speech "combined his father's awkward oratory with his brother's mangled syntax and malapropisms" -- not to mention the aura of a factually challenged foreign policy stumblebum. In what Juan Cole speculates may have been a "Freudian slip," he said Iraq when he meant Iran: and in describing the Islamic State, Jeb claimed they have 200,000 fighters when the number is a bit closer to 20,000. His people later claimed he "misspoke," but threat inflation is a distinctly Republican habit that seems inherent in the species -- so who knows what he really thinks?

By the time he was through, you could see the relief on Jeb's face as he manspreaded in his chair and took questions from the audience, at one point confessing his amateurism: "Look, the more I get into this stuff, there are some things [where] you just go, you know, 'Holy schnikes.'"

The voters may well have a similar reaction to his candidacy, if this speech is any indication.

American power projected abroad, Jeb averred, "is a force for good." The people of Iraq may contest this, but, hey, they aren't voting in the next presidential election, now are they? It's good, he says, because it's "grounded in principle" -- so what is the principle involved? Here it is:

"American leadership projected consistently and grounded in principle has been a benefit to the world. In the post-World War Two era, the United States has helped hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, secured liberty for an equal number, and has been a force for peace and security.

"Only our exceptional country can make that claim. This has happened because our presidents, both Republican and Democrats, have accepted the responsibilities of American power in the world with the belief that we are a force for good."

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