5.17.15: Which Candidate Can Lead America's Rebuilding?

Just when you think you know what you're talking about, Jeb Bush comes out and has the highest profile worst week of any presidential candidate. In last week's column, discussing “Meet the Press's” ‘donor series’ featuring Sheldon Adelson, we had said that Jeb Bush seemed to be the safe bet based on what Sheldon Adelson was looking for in a candidate. But after this week, Jeb Bush may have really taken himself out of the running. We disagree with Chuck Todd when he said of Mr. Bush’s statements today that right now it is relevant but down the line not so much. We think that this will continue to be relevant throughout the entire primary season and it's definitely going to loom large in the first debate, whether Jeb Bush participates in that first one or not.

And the reason is because video exists. Megyn Kelly of Fox News asked Mr. Bush if he knew then what he knows now, would he have made the same decision as his brother, George W and gone to war. Jeb Bush, for his part, was prepared for an Iraq question but not phrased that way – we’ll give him that. He had prepared for, would you have done the same with the intelligence available at the time? We fully understand that he either misheard it or interpreted it wrong or somehow heard the question that he wanted to hear, but in our opinion, either way the answer should have been ‘no.’  The conservative-friendly answer that he should have given in the first place was ‘knowing what we know now, we would have not gone into Iraq, but four days later was plenty of time for other Republican candidates to attack him from all flanks.

With the exception of Jeb Bush, all the other candidates have Monday morning quarterbacked the Iraq War efficiently enough for Americans know where each one stands. So instead of ‘relevant now, not relevant later’ this could be the week we look back and say Jeb Bush took himself out of the running.

In the interview with Rand Paul, he didn't go as far as to say that we are better off with dictators in the Middle East, but certainly affirmed as much. Let's face it, we let the genie out of the bottle in the Middle East and the radicals killed the genie. The only thing that we agreed with Sarah Fagan today was that Rand Paul was asking the right question of Hillary Clinton, which was ‘knowing what you know now would you go into Libya?’

Getting back to Iraq for a moment, the reason that we had this Delta force operation over the weekend goes back to George W. Bush's decision to invade, as will all operations moving forward against ISIS.  We agree that the symbolism and psychological effective of this successful attack where Delta force soldiers went deep into ISIS territory, killed their chief financier, grabbed a wealth of information and captured his wife is incredibly significant… and incredibly risky. For the U.S. military to commit to such an operation, the CIA must have been convinced that knowing what this man knew was vital in defeating ISIS .If one U.S. soldier were captured the consequences of that would have escalated military involvement tenfold within a month.

Returning to presidential candidates for a moment and thinking about the foreign policy and domestic economic challenges that the United States faces, we examine the full presidential field of candidates - both Republican and Democrat. We don't see any of these individuals being able to significantly move the needle in a way that positively affects the lives of middle-class, and aspiring middle-class, Americans.

The panel today was absolutely right about Hillary Clinton in that she has not put forward a vision for where she wants to take this country. She's not out there answering questions we don't know what her ideas are. Helene Cooper she is seeing Mrs. Clinton making the same mistakes as she did in 2008, which is disturbing and has to be really discouraging for all of her supporters. That there is no alternative challenge for her is a major problem. And in terms of the Republican field, we look across the entire scope and don't see one individual that is capable of leading all of America - not just the Republican Party, but all Americans. We just don't see it.

It is beyond our comprehension that not one of these candidates has come out and unequivocally said that we need to improve the infrastructure of this country.  The United States has to reorganize its priorities and sacrifice to do this.  Since Republicans control both the House and Senate, we comprehend their wantonness to cut taxes, but there are so many tax dollars at the top of the chain that are not collected that could help this country rebuild its infrastructure.

A graphic on today's program outlined that most of the train travel in this country is done in Democratic states, making Republicans less inclined to vote for train transportation. This is ridiculous and divisive. Most train travel occurs in California and the Northeast corridor. The Northeast corridor is responsible for 1/5 of the economy - 20%. California is the eighth largest economy in the world. Yet, our leaders do not seem to understand the implication of those statistics, and the necessity of this public transportation. In these terms, they just suck.

The sad, end result of the Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia is Washington voices such as House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) rhetorically asking why we would extend funding for Amtrak and Republicans accusing Democrats of politicizing the issue. This was political as soon as it happened.   

What American people are really saying is that we don’t want it to be political; we just want better, safer ways to get around and nicer trains.  

Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) is on to the right idea.

Panel: Tom Friedman, The New York Times; David Axelrod, fmr. senior Advisor to President Obama; Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Sara Fagen, fmr. White House Political Director