Saturday, October 3, 2015

Stuff happens

 
     Did Jeb Bush really say what the Washington Post reports him saying, in regard to the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon?
     "We're in a difficult time in our country and I don't think that more government is necessarily the answer to this. I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else. It's just, it's very sad to see. But I resist the notion -- and I did, I had this, this challenge as governor, because we have, look, stuff happens, there's always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something and it's not necessarily the right thing to do."
    Stuff happens? Really? Isn't that what his brother said in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005? Oh well, what's a guy to do? It's not as if the president can help or anything. Donald Trump says some crazy, opera buffo stuff, but at least he wants to be president to do things. I expected more of Jeb Bush, as the adult in the room, than shrugging, sorry-not-my-table indifference to the nation's woes. If it were a big business in trouble, he'd suddenly find himself motivated. 
    "Stuff happens" is going to haunt him, during the brief period he is a presidential contender in 2015, assuming it isn't over already.

12 comments:

  1. "heck of a job Brownie"

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  2. There is an ancient proverb that goes something like, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Jeb Bush is an enemy of the Tea Party, if elected he would do everything in his power to minimize their influence. Therefore, by simple logic, everyone here against Jeb Bush is my friend.

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  3. I'm continually amazed how this "mainstream" Republican candidate stumbles over his own tongue. At this point, he's worse than Romney on credible message.

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    1. Could this be Bush's "forty-seven percent" moment?

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  4. The Ghost of Christmas PastOctober 3, 2015 at 9:48 PM

    I don't like Bush or his father or brother. But his comment on this statistically insignificant event, blown out of proportion by hysterical mass media and drone bomber Obama, is absolutely right. No big deal. Repeal all gun laws now.

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  5. Why does stuff happen? Because of a constitution many of whose sections no longer make sense, interpreted by a court in the most stupid way, propped up by people of great wealth who care about only themselves. Bush is a representative of that order. That he is not very smart and tongue tied is hardly surprising. Not all of his opponents in the GOP are as oafish, but they are all pretty much the same on substance. It's a shame that such stuff happens.

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  6. I'm no fan of Bush, but from the full quote it doesn't seem as if he was merely shrugging off this event, it seems like he was saying that in his experience not every tragedy has a legislative remedy, which might sound callous but is unfortunately also true.

    I mean, I'm sure "stuff happens" will follow him around like an albatross, but it doesn't seem particularly fair, any more than the Dean Scream played on a loop was fair. There are plenty of more legitimate reasons to not vote for the guy without playing this game of "these two words you said, plucked out of context, are your new defining catch-phrase."

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    1. Perhaps, except when a reporter tried to give him an opportunity to backtrack, he turned testy and snappish (as only a challenged Bush can) and said something like, "OK, things happen. Is that better?"

      I suppose this was a more honest answer than the let's-pray-for-the-victims response we usually get from the do-nothing-about-guns crowd. But "more honest" doesn't automatically translate to "better."

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    2. At least he didn't say "bring 'em on."

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  7. All these words about the Oregon shooting (George Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005?), and yet no mention that Christians were targeted by the murderer?

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