Jeb Bush running 2016 campaign on a 2004 platform: Analyst

US Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush is not yet dead as a viable candidate but he is in a coma and still running his 2016 campaign on a discredited 2004 platform, an international lawyer and political analyst says.

Barry Grossman, who is based on the Indonesian island of Bali, made the remarks during an interview with Press TV while commenting on a an article titled “Jeb Bush is not dead” which was published by The New York Times on Thursday, two days after the New Hampshire primary where Bush finished fourth.

Bush, who was once considered the leading candidate for Republican nomination, has failed to gain traction on the campaign trail and in the polls.

“We have to give credit where credit is due and, for a brief moment, by standing against public opinion and Trump’s bizarre call to ban all Muslims from entering the homeland, Jeb Bush almost came across as the voice of reason and as the only serious candidate in the GOP clown show,” Grossman said.

“Of course with the leading contenders for the Republican nomination being Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, by the standards of lunacy they have set, it doesn’t take much to come across as being almost rational.”

Bush’s vision of America’s global role

Grossman said that the problem for Jeb Bush is that “we already know him from everything else he has said and done.”

“On domestic policy, his leadership in Florida hardly comes across as something any significant constituency is rushing forward to embrace as a vision for the entire nation. The kindest thing one can say is that his domestic policy vision represents a whitewashed version of what some paleo-conservatives in the South aspire to,  but he is an anathema to most other people, that is, to the overwhelming majority of American voters,” he stated.

“The real problem with Jeb Bush is certainly not his bona fides but rather his deluded vision of America’s role globally and his astoundingly incompetent foreign policy position which is little more than a puffed up repackaging of the same belligerent rhetoric that his kid brother George Dubya peddled to flag waving Americans still reeling in the aftermath of 9/11,” he noted.

Bush’s solution to Mideast problems

“Not only does Jeb still consider that the fabled US  surge in Iraq  was – in his own words –  ‘a brilliant and heroic  success,’  but he also embraces that same kind of blind and ineffective militarism as the solution to all problems in the Middle East,” Grossman said.

“You don’t have to go too far out on a limb to say that Jeb Bush has completely misjudged the American people’s appetite for more war and more military spending at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table,” he added.

“He is running a 2016 campaign, with a platform which has not washed with the US public since George [W.] Bush won his second term.  Somebody needs to tell him that he left his run more than a decade too late. In any case, if he is not dead as a viable candidate, he certainly is in a coma and he is no Lazarus,” the analyst noted.

Bush supports vast increase in military spending

Grossman said “Jeb Bush is on record as supporting a vast increase in military spending and has committed himself to increasing troops numbers. He has pledged to increase submarine production and to make a substantial investment in new aircraft for the Air Force. He has also called for improvements to missile defense systems and surveillance and cyber security capabilities.

“In his own words, he believes that ‘the best policy for creating the conditions for peace is to develop the capability to wage war with crushing force.’ Again in his own words, he says that ‘whether it’s our command of the seas, the land, or the air, of space or cyberspace, America’s goal should be technological superiority beyond question. My plan puts the war fighters first, to maintain a force without equal,’” he pointed out.

“Of course he doesn’t stop at echoing neocon calls for beefed up military spending and preparedness. He is also committed to putting boots on the ground in both Syria and Iraq.”

Bush’s delusions on Iran

“According to Jeb,  Trump hasn’t ‘thought these things through.’ yet he echoes Trump’s  own lunacy by taking the position that the historic P5+1 multilateral  nuclear accord with Iran ‘gives legitimacy to Tehran and does nothing to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions,’ notwithstanding that Iran’s legitimacy is not in any way derived from the accord and the 17 agencies comprising the US security apparatus have consistently maintained for years that Iran has no nuclear ambitions, something which the accord guarantees will be the case for the foreseeable future,” Grossman said.

“Indeed, if anyone is confused about just how deluded Jeb is, they need only consider his claim that: ‘For the first time in the history of Israel, its greatest existential threat has been created by its greatest ally.’ And what he is referring to there is the US agreement with Iran arising out of the P5+1 nuclear accord,” he said.

“The fact that does not disqualify him as a serious candidate, then it is worth remembering that in his much maligned November foreign policy speech, he exceeded even the heights of madness reached by his younger brother.  According to Jeb, ‘radical Islamic terrorists have declared war on the western world. Their aim is our total destruction.’  The way he sees it, ‘we can’t withdraw from this threat, nor negotiate with it. We have but one choice: to defeat it. We are at war with radical Islamic terrorism. It is the war of our time, and a struggle that will determine the fate of the free world,’” the commentator argued.

“It is really quite challenging to work out just how delusional a person has to be in order believe such utter nonsense.  Neither George Bush nor Trump have dared to go that far,” Grossman concluded.

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www.presstv.co.uk