Jeb? Just Ain't Campaigning As the Smart One Anymore... (update)

(Update below)
In the wake of the tragic shooting in Oregon yesterday, the instinctive response for the gun-worshiper types is to argue that "no one could have predicted" the fact that we've got mass shootings on a near-daily basis.  Or even worse they would argue "if we had laws in place the bad guys would still get guns and kill people."

They love that second one.  Given most of the gun-worshipers are Far Right Republicans - I will grant there are a few librul tree-huggers who lock and load - that "regulating of guns" fits their Randian Libertarian narrative of "laws are too restrictive and government shouldn't be nagging us".

It's a script. It's been worked out for decades now.  For someone to go off-script would be a foolish and reckless endeavor...

Jeb Bush in South Carolina argued against calls for greater gun control on Friday, saying “stuff happens.”

...oh sweet f-cking Jebus.

Look, I'll admit I am not a fan of The Jeb*.  He's been on my "Oh Hell No" list since 1994 when he did something during his first (failed) gubernatorial attempt that personally offended me.  But for him to just flatly say "Stuff Happens" after a tragedy that claimed nine innocents and injured as many more, on a topic where more and more Americans are outraged by the inaction against gun violence...  It's the tone-deaf attitude he projects that is just killing his campaign.

If you watch the interview clip and the follow-up with the press, Jeb^ just isn't even in this, he's stammering and jumping around on his logic.

He even tries to bring up examples of "impulsive regulations" by arguing about safety fences around pools, as though keeping young children from drowning is a step too far.

Gawker even points out how bad an argument this can get for TEH SMART BUSH:

After challenging a reporter to tell him “what I said wrong,” The New York Times reports, Bush clarified that he meant “Things happen all the time. Things. Is that better?”

Not really, but that didn’t stop him from going into detail about what he meant by “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.”

“A child drowned in a pool and the impulse is to pass a law that puts fencing around pools,” he said, “Well it may not change it. Or you have a car accident and the impulse is to pass a law that deals with that unique event. And the cumulative effect of this is, in some cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law, and you’re imposing on large numbers of people burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder to protect liberty.”

A liberty-eroding, people-burdening law about pool fences is an oddly specific example. I wonder if any state has ever actually passed such a --

(quoting another source, the Sun-Sentinel from 2000) After the House voted 109-8 for the bill on Friday, Preston met Gov. Jeb Bush, who committed to signing a bill that requires new pool owners to pick a way to keep unsupervised children out of the water.

Oh.

That's right, folks: Jeb# cannot remember the safety regs he himself signed as a Republican governor.  Granted, a lot of us can't even remember the breakfasts we had three days ago, but you'd think he'd have reviewed his own record somewhere and reminded himself "oh hey, here's a topic about government regulating I might wanna avoid later."

Here's another thing: that liberty-eroding law of putting up safety fences around pools happened to help contribute to a nine percent drop in fatal drownings overall, and for infants it dropped by 45 percent.

'Cause here's the weird thing about safety regulations: they are meant to save lives.  Hence the whole idea of "well-regulating" firearms as a safety issue for millions of Americans who DO NOT WANT TO GET SHOT.

For Jeb>< to bring up sensible regs as an argument against "liberty" - as though freedom requires risking life and limb for yourself or others on an hourly basis - is one of the dumbest things he could have done at an ill-advised time and using the worst talking points to do so.

Let's be honest, Republicans: Jeb? Bush is an overrated, stumbling moron.  He's starting to make Rick "Oops" Perry look like a Mensa member.

There's a reason why the Establishment candidate is polling in fifth place now in some polls.  Well, actually there's several: being an idiot is one of them.

Update: I've been seeing more comparisons of Jeb(ish) online today to a particular character on The West Wing:

The show got a lot of hype from the fact they predicted Barack Obama's win by basing Matt Santos on him.  At the time they created Bob Ritchie - a Florida governor - as Bartlet's opponent for the re-election cycle, the belief was that they based Ritchie on Dubya.  Who knew they had the Florida Bush brother and not the Texan one right all along?

When you look back on this Jeb, "Stuff Happens" is when a majority of Americans decided to kick your ass.