[h=1]Donald Trump's barbs allow Jeb Bush to turn his brother's resolve after 9/11 into an asset[/h][h=2]Just as al-Qaeda attacks once defined George W Bush's presidency, Republican front-runner's acerbic criticisms have given faltering campaign a fresh target - but perhaps too late[/h]
By Robert Tait, Los Angeles
4:31AM GMT 16 Feb 2016
[h=2]Just as al-Qaeda attacks once defined George W Bush's presidency, Republican front-runner's acerbic criticisms have given faltering campaign a fresh target - but perhaps too late[/h]
Jeb Bush, left, stands with George W at a campaign rally in North Charleston
The importance of 9/11 in the family legend has given Jeb Bush fresh purpose
It used to be said that George W Bush’s presidency was without a purpose until the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. Could Donald Trump have unwittingly injected the same sense of meaning into Jeb Bush’s flagging campaign by dredging up the devastating 2001 assaults - and the former president’s supposed failure to prevent them - during last Saturday’s bruising debate?
Mr Bush seemed particularly animated when he spoke on the subject at Monday's rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, immediately after it had been addressed by his brother.
“I don’t know if you all watched the debate on Saturday night,” the candidate said, referring to Mr Trump's accusations that the George W Bush administration failed to keep America safe and that it lied over Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons stockpile to justify invading Iraq.
“I thought it was a little strange that a front-running candidate would attack the president of the United States, who did keep us safe. While he [Mr Trump] was building a reality TV show, George Bush brought together a team to build the security apparatus that is one of the reasons we haven’t been attacked more often than we have.
“I closed my eyes; I thought it was Michael Moore on stage.”
The meaning of the last remark could not have been clearer if Mr Bush had said: Mr Trump, you’re no Republican. It’s a refrain the party front-runner will hear more often as the Bush campaign tries to capitalise on his embrace of what was once seen as an exclusively Democrat position on the Iraq, summed up in the slogan, “Bush lied, people died.”
George W seemed more presidential in campaigning for his brother than he often did during his own successful run in 2000
The 2000-model George W Bush could be tongue-tied and prone to malapropisms (who could forget “is our children learning”?)
The elder-statesman version is a much assured figure, referring to Mr Trump’s campaign with reproachful disdain without mentioning the candidate himself.
That made the succession of subtle put-downs all the more devastating.
We need to nominate someone who can win in November,” said the twice-elected former leader, comments that could have been tailor-made to rile Mr Trump, the self-styled winner who glories in dismissing rivals as “losers”
Then: “I understand that Americans are angry and frustrated. But we do not need someone in the Oval Office who mirrors and inflames our anger and frustration.”
And then, in a clear reference to Mr Trump’s mantra of the need for “strength”: “It seems like Americans are yearning for a strong leader. Strength is not empty rhetoric. It is not bluster. It is not theatrics. Real strength, strength of purpose and character, comes from integrity and character and in my experience, the strongest person usually isn’t the loudest one in the room.”
The implication? That Mr Trump lacked not only integrity and character, but also the strength he so openly boasts that only he possesses. One could imagine the billionaire tycoon’s florid complexion turning incandescent, if he was watching - and not too busy attacking Ted Cruz.
The polls show Mr Trump with a huge lead in the run-up to Saturday’s Republican primary in South Carolina. So the former president’s intervention - popular as he is in a state that gave him unstoppable momentum after he won the primary there during the 2000 campaign - may have come too late.
Yet George W’s authoritative extolling of his brother “measured” qualities may resonate with a wider Republican voter base surely given pause for thought by the sheer rancour of last weekend’s debate - and Mr Trump’s contribution to it.
Time alone will tell. Yet it is testimony to America’s dramatically altered political landscape - as well as Jeb Bush’s reduced currency - that a president who was wildly unpopular when he left the White House seven years ago is now being contemplated as a possible electoral asset.
Due to his journey into ultra-leftlibtardism resulting in his comments about Bush and 9/11, a depth to which even the lowlife Hillary Clinton would not dare to sink, Donald Trump will never get my vote. He just revealed that becoming president of this country means more to him than the country itself. Fuck him.
TRUMP ROLLS ON:
Looks like Trump will be declared winner even before the polls close Saturday 8PM
Trump is a nationalist which is bad for the people who want to destroy America.
The big donors have paused to pour more money
into losing causes. They are not super rich
becayse they are dumb & in the sobriety of their
mornings they can tell the time of day.
Looks like Trump will be declared winner even before the polls close Saturday 8PM
| South Carolina Primary - Republican Winner | |||||||
| Sat 2/20 | 841 Donald Trump wins South Carolina Primary | -1200 | |||||
| 6:00AM | 842 Field wins South Carolina Primary | +600 | |||||
| Sat 2/20 | 843 Ted Cruz wins South Carolina Primary | +800 | |||||
| 6:00AM | 844 Field wins South Carolina Primary | -1700 | |||||
| Sat 2/20 | 845 Marco Rubio wins South Carolina Primary | +1400 | |||||
| 6:00AM | 846 Field wins South Carolina Primary | -3600 | |||||
| Sat 2/20 | 847 Jeb Bush wins South Carolina Primary | +2500 | |||||
| 6:00AM | 848 Field wins South Carolina Primary | -7500 |
Trump is a nationalist which is bad for the people who want to destroy America.
The big donors have paused to pour more money
into losing causes. They are not super rich
becayse they are dumb & in the sobriety of their
mornings they can tell the time of day.
I said months ago Trump will keep flapping his gums until he goes too far. I guarantee you I'm not the only undecided voter who has eliminated him the past few days. Look at him wearing "The Parrot Yapper" from the Vitterd Collection.
i guess we will see. His comments about John McCain being captured could be the dumbest of all time....and that didn't stop him one bit.
I said months ago Trump will keep flapping his gums until he goes too far. I guarantee you I'm not the only undecided voter who has eliminated him the past few days. Look at him wearing "The Parrot Yapper" from the Vitterd Collection.
This will make you chuckle.
Here's what Trump wrote in his book The America We Deserve... before the Iraq war:
"Consider Iraq. After each pounding from U.S . warplanes, Iraq has dusted itself off and gone right back to work developing a nuclear arsenal. Six years of tough talk and U.S. fireworks in Baghdad have done little to slow Iraq’s crash program to become a nuclear power. They’ve got missiles capable of flying nine hundred kilometers—more than enough to reach Tel Aviv. They’ve got enriched uranium. All they need is the material for nuclear fission to complete the job, and, according to the Rumsfeld report, we don’t even know for sure if they’ve laid their hands on that yet. That’s what our last aerial assault on Iraq in 1999 was about. Saddam Hussein wouldn’t let UN weapons inspectors examine certain sites where that material might be stored. The result when our bombing was over? We still don’t know what Iraq is up to or whether it has the material to build nuclear weapons. I’m no warmonger. But the fact is, if we decide a strike against Iraq is necessary, it is madness not to carry the mission to its conclusion. When we don’t, we have the worst of all worlds: Iraq remains a threat, and now has more incentive than ever to attack us."
:lolBIG:
It's like Trump has this reflex that he can't help himself when he is attacked, he must go for the jugular with no filter whatsoever. The most extreme thing he can say about someone, whether it be McCain, Bush, Hilary, etc. On one hand you wanna believe the guy is a genius for hijacking an entire primary but then he says something like "They lied!" and you just kinda know he is winging it.
Doesn't seem like it is hurting him though. He is the Teflon Don for a reason.
Doesn't seem like it is hurting him though. He is the Teflon Don for a reason.
You know my political mantra: take'em down with their own words. That is only way to beat Trump.
It wouldn't be difficult. Just flood the TV airwaves with his own statements/interviews and conservatives would see he's Romney with an attitude.
What's he going to do? Attack and insult himself on twitter?
They've tried that. They've run tons of ads with him saying Hilary is fantastic, good job Obama on bailout/stimulus, etc...A lot of $ has been spent in all 3 states so far trying to defeat him.
It hasn't worked.
His base doesn't care. The question is just how big is it?
At the end of the day people are subconsciously making the calculation in their head "Things are slowly getting more and more F'd up, might as well roll the dice on Trump."
Seems pretty clear at this point that if the GOP doesn't want Trump to get the nomination then some people are going to have to check their ego's at the door and drop out. Jeb, Kasich in particular.
SC polls show Trump and Rubio tied if it was a 2 person race, but it isn't.
Even then I dunno if it stops him from Trumpling the competition, but it is their only option.
SC polls show Trump and Rubio tied if it was a 2 person race, but it isn't.
Even then I dunno if it stops him from Trumpling the competition, but it is their only option.
