Donna Brazile
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had his best debate showing yet – and it’s because he found a role to play. Bush seemed determined to take down GOP front-runner Donald Trump. He didn’t quite push Trump over the edge, but he badgered him repeatedly and seemed to get under his skin.
“He’s a chaos candidate, and he’d be a chaos president,” Bush said at one point.
In that exchange – like every other – Trump’s comeback was to belittle Bush. “(Jeb) said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. … Nobody cares.” Trump said.
Witness this next exchange, as Bush hit hard on one of Trump’s terrorism proposals – and talked over Trump.
“A little of your own medicine there, Donald?” Bush asked.
“I know you’re trying to build up your energy, Jeb, but it’s not working very well,” Trump replied, taking back the floor.
When he’d finished, Bush responded, “Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency. That’s not going to happen.”
Later, Bush continued: “Leadership is not about attacking people and disparaging people. Leadership is about creating a serious strategy to deal with the threat of our time.”
The following day, appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Bush said he was “pleased” to have taken Trump on and revealed his weaknesses. “His policies, what he’s advocated, just won’t do it,” Bush said, “And I was pleased to be able to point that out. … And I think I won.”
Trump’s frailty all along has been, like 2012 presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s, an unwillingness to do homework on the issues. It showed in this debate, the most robust and substantive of the Republican debates so far.
Hugh Hewitt, talk show host on the Salem Radio Network, asked Trump, “What’s your priority among our nuclear triad?” In other words, among our three methods of nuclear defense – missiles, bombers and submarines – which one of these would Trump make, as commander in-chief, the top priority?
Trump gave a rambling, all-overthe map, confused answer, clearly being without knowledge about our nation’s decades-long nuclear defense strategy. Hewitt, a little dumbfounded, repeated the question.
Hewitt: “Of the three legs of the triad, though, do you have a priority? I want to go to Senator Rubio after that and ask him.”
Trump: “I think, I think, for me, nuclear is just the power, the devastation is very important to me.”
Hewitt: “Senator Rubio, do you have a response?”
Rubio: “I do. First, let’s explain to people at home who the triad … what the triad is. Maybe a lot of people haven’t heard that terminology before.”
Rubio was too kind. Trump clearly never had heard “that terminology” before. Rubio very cleverly avoided the temptation of pointing out Trump’s ignorance on the subject, but Trump’s ignorance was blatantly obvious. Rubio ended up looking like he was being magnanimous to Trump, which is the most humiliating thing he could have done to him.
Rubio then ran rings around Trump on a vital, essential matter that any candidate for president should have been well informed about.
Trump revealed more weakness in being unable to grasp that his all-Muslim ban would be detrimental to our national security. He apparently hasn’t a clue that Muslim nations are our strongest Middle East allies in the war against extremist terrorists. This is so fundamental to our security that Bush called Trump “unhinged” for proposing it.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Bush exactly what about Trump’s ban on Muslims was “unhinged.”
“If we’re going to ban all Muslims, how are we going to get them to be part of a coalition to destroy ISIS?” Bush replied. “The Kurds are the greatest fighting force and our strongest allies. They’re Muslim. Look, this is not a serious proposal. … So Donald, you know, is great at … at the one-liners, but … He would not be the commander in chief we need to keep our country safe.”
“What bothers me is our party will win if we have a hopeful optimistic message,” he said the next day on CNN’s “New Day.” “And I don’t think he does.”
Trump doesn’t have an optimistic message. He portends doom. He lacks a plan. All he has is a Mohammad Ali “I’m the greatest” pitch, which is good for the fight ring, but disastrous for the Oval Office.
In fact, Trump reminds me of when Ali flunked the written part of the selective service draft: “I said I was ‘The Greatest,’” Ali told reporters. “I never said I was the smartest.”
We need smart in the White House.
— Donna Brazile is a senior Democratic strategist, a political commentator and contributor to CNN and ABC News, and a contributing columnist to Ms. Magazine and O, the Oprah Magazine.
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