WASHINGTON — This past week, likely GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush swung and missed on the question of whether he would have authorized the use of force against Iraq in 2003, knowing what we know now.
Then he swung and missed again.
And again.
It started Monday, when Bush told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that he definitely would have approved the war. “So would’ve Hillary Clinton,” he said. And “almost everybody who was confronted with the intelligence they got.”
The problem? He misheard the question. Kelly didn’t ask what he would have done then. She asked what his decision would be “knowing what we know now.”
Of course, these things happen. So Bush called into conservative radio host Sean Hannity’s show Tuesday to clarify his position on the deeply unpopular war. Except, not. “I don’t know what that decision would have been, that’s a hypothetical,” Bush said when asked the “knowing what we know now” question.
OK, OK. Everybody misses a hanging curveball once in a while. So, on Wednesday, Bush surely took care of business on the question, right? Nope! “Going back in time and talking about hypothetical, ‘what would have happened, what could have happened,’ I think does a disservice” to the men and women who served in Iraq, Bush said at a Nevada town hall.
Finally, on Thursday, in Tempe, Ariz., Bush found the right answer. “If we’re all supposed to answer hypothetical questions: Knowing what we now know, what would you have done? I would not have engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.”
Good! That only took four days and four different answers.
Jeb Bush, for forgetting that three strikes makes an out, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something.
Cillizza covers the White House for The Washington Post and writes The Fix, its politics blog.