Jeb! is everywhere!
The former governor of Florida, who got thumped by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, keeps popping up lately — and getting news coverage (although not exactly prime time).
His latest stint was on Sunday, when low-energy Jeb said people “should be marching in the streets” to demand changes to an “antiquated” education system that is leaving young people ill-prepared for the jobs of the future.
“The looming challenge of automation and artificial intelligence and the rapid advancement of technology brings great benefits but also creates huge challenges,” Bush said on an AM radio show in New York (yes, AM still exists). “This is not something that’s science fiction. This is happening as we speak. And yet we still have this big skills gap.”
Jebbie Downer called for revolution, saying “People should be marching in the streets demanding that we change how we educate K-12, higher education, job training.”
Just last week, Jeb went on a Sunday talk show (not “Meet the Press,” but WFOR’s “Facing South Florida”), to decry Trump, saying the president “should stop saying things that aren’t true.”
“He’s a distraction in and of himself… He’s got a lot of work to do, and some of these things – the wiretapping and all of this stuff – is a complete distraction that makes it harder to accomplish the things I know he wants to do.” Trump, he said, “hasn’t shifted to being president in the way that people are used to, and I think that’s the problem, I would say. The strength is that he’s acted in a good way and lifted people’s spirits in terms of economic growth and job creation. But he’s a distraction in and of himself by creating all of these, through Twitter and…”
And he did it again in his AM radio hit. “Presidential leadership would be helpful here,” he said, then bashed Republicans. “We haven’t come up with a compelling, unifying agenda… And that’s where you see the struggles in Washington right now. The health care debacle is a good example of that.”
With the mainstream media attacking Trump at every turn, Jeb sees an opportunity to swoop in and be the cool, calm and collected politician, contrasting himself with Trump’s fiery antics. He’s clearly getting ready to present himself as the anti-Trump, but he seems to have forgotten (so soon) that he did that once before, to disastrous results.