Whooooooooops Your Messaging, Jeb Bush!

Steve Benen's perfect snark in this piece is amazing:

Former First Lady Barbara Bush publicly expressed skepticism last year about yet another member of her immediate family running for president, but she's since changed her mind. Last week, she threw her name behind a new fundraising campaign for one of her sons, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R), with the launch of the "Run Jeb Run Fund."

She's not the only member of the family helping the Florida Republican fill his already overflowing campaign coffers. The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday [that] "Texas GOP donors have lined up for a Jeb Bush political committee fundraiser in Dallas on Wednesday that will include a rare political appearance by his brother."

...[I]t was just last month when Jeb Bush delivered a big speech in Chicago in which he tried to put some distance between himself and his controversial last name. "I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make," he said. "But I am my own man – and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences."

Left unsaid: "Now, if you don't mind, my mom and brother would like you to start contributing to my super PAC."

LOLOLOL. That is hilarious, but it is also true: Jeb Bush wants to talk a big game about how he's not his father and not his brother, because he knows that the "dynasty" charge will be a lot to overcome on his way to the White House, but he still needs to rely on their vast fundraising networks to fund that journey.

Dear oh dear. What is the career beneficiary of grotesque nepotism to do? Poor little rich boy etc.

The thing is, his connection to his family is pretty much the least of my concerns about Jeb Bush. No one makes it to the White House without connections and favors, be they familial or otherwise, to which most of us don't and will never have access. So, to whom Jeb Bush has those connections and from whom he gets those favors is of far less concern to me than the fact that his politics are garbage and he is the worst.

I'd have a hell of a lot more respect for him (by which I mean: I'd have a modicum of respect for him) if he'd stop trying to have it both ways and just said, straightforwardly, "I come from a political family; I have privileges by virtue of my membership in that family; I'm going to leverage those privileges to my benefit, just as any presidential candidate leverages whatever privileges he or she has; but I hope you will see me both as part of my family and also my own person. Now: Here is my nightmare platform..."

But: "Pay no attention to the family behind the curtain!" is definitely a strategy, too.