Oh hey never mind everybody, Jeb Bush just misunderstood that question about the Iraq war.

My attention level is right about here.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Jeb Bush on Tuesday sought to arrest a chorus of criticism from Democrats and some conservatives after he told an interviewer that, knowing what history has since shown about intelligence failures, he still would have authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 

Calling in to Sean Hannity’s syndicated radio show, Mr. Bush said he had misunderstood a question that one of Mr. Hannity’s Fox News colleagues, Megyn Kelly, had asked him in an interview shown on Sunday and Monday nights. 

“I interpreted the question wrong, I guess,” Mr. Bush said. “I was talking about, given what people knew then.” 

The attempt at mopping-up was quick, but it did not bring the controversy to an immediate end: When Mr. Hannity asked about the 2003 Iraq invasion again, in yes-or-no fashion, Mr. Bush said he did not know what the answer would have been, saying, “That’s a hypothetical.” Then, he seemed to go out of his way to absolve his brother, former President George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion: “Mistakes were made, as they always are in life,” Mr. Bush said.

"Mistakes were made?"

There were no mistakes made. The Bush administration did exactly what they set out to do, and used intelligence that they KNEW was faulty to do it.

They quietly fed false information to newspaper writers, used Fox News as a propaganda machine, and destroyed the career of a CIA agent in order to push their agenda.

And don't give me that crap about Jebbie not understanding the question.

Megyn Kelly, a host on Fox News the best friend the Republican party ever had, prefaced the question with "Knowing what we know now." She did hurriedly add that part to the end of the question, as an after thought. THAT was the very first sentence!

Here is what Jim Newell of Salon had to say about this: 

Jeb Bush has had 12 years to come up with a decent response to questions about his brother’s dumb war in Iraq. He has tens or hundreds of millions of dollars ready to go for a campaign, and dozens of the finest political advisers in the Republican Party working with him to craft proper messaging on any and all topic areas. And unlike, say, Scott Walker, he is well-versed in policy himself, too. 

And yet he still cannot offer a coherent response to the most predictable question ever conceived, his answer to which he should be rehearsing in the mirror each morning after he wakes up, and even listening to a looped tape of while he’s asleep: Knowing what we know now, would have you authorized the invasion of Iraq? Knowing that the main pretexts for the war were false and that the war would last forever and it would suck mightily – things that people should have known in 2002-2003, too, but never mind that for the moment — would you still have done the Iraq? 

When Fox News’ Megyn Kelly asked Bush this question earlier in the week, Bush had to simply pretend he didn’t hear the “knowing what we know now” part. He answered his preferred question, about whether he would have authorized the invasion if he was president or had a vote in the matter in 2003. 

Newell goes on to suggest that this might not be a gaffe that Jebbie can recover from, and that it might literally have doomed his candidacy. 

If true this changes the entire 2016 paradigm.

I have long believed that ultimately this contest would come down to Jeb vs Hillary, Bush vs Clinton, dynasty vs dynasty.

But if Bush really did just accidentally blow his dick off then that means Hillary's future opponent is going to be one of those red nosed bastards from the GOP clown car.

And who among them could ever even get close to the primary without self inflicting a wound at least as big as the one that Jeb just inflicted?

Hell more than half of them have already relegated themselves to "also run" status due to crippling gaffes that occurred even BEFORE they announced their intention to run. (Yeah Ted Cruz, I'm looking at you.)

No right now the only hope the Republicans have in 2016 is that Hillary has a bigger, yet unknown, albatross around her neck than Jeb's brother's unnecessary war of choice.

Good luck with that GOP.