Campaign on the Line, Jeb Bush Brings Out the Big Gun

Jeb Bush has long struggled with the legacy of his brother George W. Bush, whose handling of the Iraq War has left the former president a controversial figure among the Republican electorate. Now, with his candidacy on the line, Jeb is betting that his brother still has the political muscle in South Carolina to help deliver a crucial primary win against a frontrunner who routinely rails against the war.

George W. Bush’s appearance Monday night at a rally in North Charleston, S.C., was his first on behalf of his brother, who is currently running distantly behind mogul Donald Trump, a candidate so critical of Iraq that the businessman once suggested the former president should be impeached.

During his roughly 30-minute speech, George W. Bush heartily endorsed his “big little brother” in front of the words: “Trusted Leadership for a Stronger America.”

Grayer and thinner-haired than he was in office, he spent much of his time talking about 9/11 and the importance of having a president capable of handling unexpected events “with calm resolve.”

“I became something no president ever wants to be: a war-time president, and I made a lot of tough calls,” he said, adding he has studied his brother’s plan to defeat the Islamic State and was confident Jeb would be able to make those tough calls as well. “I’ve seen Jeb in action.”

The former president also derided what he called the “petty name-calling” “empty rhetoric” and “theatrics” of Jeb’s Republican rivals, and alluded to GOP criticism of Obama as “weak” on the world stage. “When the American president speaks, the world listens … our enemies and allies will know that when President Jeb Bush speaks, he will follow through on his words,” he said.

George W. Bush’s stumping for Jeb on the campaign trail carries clear political risks, as the former president remains a deeply divisive figure within the party. And his appearance came as frontrunner Trump continues to savage his foreign policy, following a heated GOP debate on Saturday in which he accused him of lying about Iraq’s purported weapons of mass destruction and then catastrophically mismanaging the Iraq War.

“George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East,” Trump said Saturday at the debate in Greenville, S.C. “You call it whatever you want. I want to tell you. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none.”

The comments drew boos, but it doesn’t seem as if they’ll dent the Trump’s significant momentum. A Real Clear Politics average of polls in South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on Feb. 20, shows Trump with a sizable lead on Jeb Bush, roughly 37 percent to 10 percent.

If the former Florida governor can change that dynamic, a win in South Carolina would bring momentum to his anemic campaign ahead of the “winner-takes-all” delegate decisions of “Super Tuesday” on March 1 and the Florida primary March 15, after which dropouts are expected to narrow the field dramatically.

Jeb Bush has struggled throughout his sputtering campaign to convince voters he’s his “own man” when it comes to foreign policy, even as he has surrounded himself with a number of his brother’s neoconservative national security advisors. Early on, he fumbled through questions of whether he would’ve invaded Iraq if he knew that the intelligence used to build the case for war was false. His family, including his father, former President George H.W. Bush, have kept some distance from campaign events, and before Monday, his brother had made no trail appearances with him at all.

But South Carolina has traditionally proven hospitable to George W. Bush, who twice won the state’s primary. The former president also remains popular among the sizable veterans population and party-line Republicans who hold sway in the state. Jeb Bush has sought to position himself here, particularly to these voters, as a more serious, electable alternative to Trump.

He needs a strong showing in South Carolina to reassure donors and supporters after a disappointing start for a one-time front runner who leveraged his family’s extensive political network to lock up many key endorsements and soak up donor money early on. He finished sixth in Iowa and a close but still-disappointing fourth in New Hampshire after his campaign went all in in the more establishment friendly “first in the nation” primary state.

On Monday, Jeb fully embraced his brother’s record, saying, “I look back at my brother’s time, and he didn’t know that 9/11 was gonna happen, but he rolled up his sleeves and he inspired us.” On President Barack Obama’s record following George W. Bush’s administration, he said, “The world has been torn asunder.”

“We need a president today that runs to the challenge rather than cuts and runs,” he said, seemingly an indirect reference to Trump’s spotted record on military service after multiple draft deferments during the Vietnam War.  

He also deplored the heated rhetoric and divisiveness of the 2016 campaign and sought to deliver a more optimistic message — in part because the party needs to rally around a candidate to beat the presumptive Democratic nominee. “If you’re tired of the politics of division … you’re looking at the Republican nominee,” he said. “I can beat Hillary Clinton, I promise you.”

Photo Credit: Spencer Platt / Staff