Team Jeb: He's held to 'different standard' than Hillary
Jeb Bush first stumbled on the Iraq if-you-knew-then-what-you-know-now question in an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly. He stumbled again the next day in a radio interview with Sean Hannity. He stumbled yet again in a town hall taking questions from unscreened voters in Nevada, which was followed by taking questions from the press. And, after four days of trying, Bush finally answered the question in another session with voters and the press in Arizona.
Notice anything about that? Of course Bush took plenty of deserved criticism for the substance of his answers. But give him this: All of Bush's missteps took place in open, unscripted exchanges with the press or with voters in full view of the press. And when Bush messed up on a serious question, he did not withdraw or limit access to his events. Some voters who attended really let him have it, like Ivy Ziedrich, the Young Democrat who told Bush, "Your brother created ISIS!" Still, Bush didn't subject anyone to any sort of pre-questioning. He didn't cancel events. He was available the whole time, even as he struggled to find an answer to a question that clearly troubled him.
The contrast between Bush's openness and the airtight seal around Hillary Clinton could not have been greater.
"Jeb doesn't fear taking risks or making mistakes," close Bush associate Sally Bradshaw told me via email. "He's always believed public service is about actually serving the public, and doing so on a very personal level requires putting yourself in the arena." The result of that belief, Bradshaw continued, is that "He engages. He doesn't back away. He doesn't worry about the impact of having an honest conversation or thinking something through and taking a thoughtful approach."
In the aftermath of the Iraq mistakes, Bush has taken to mentioning Clinton at events. "I asked someone to kind of add up the questions that I've been asked by people who can ask whatever they want, and of course the press that follows me around from time to time," Bush said at a town hall in Dubuque, Iowa over the weekend. "And we're probably around 800 to 900 questions asked and hopefully answered."
"Just as an aside," Bush added, "Hillary Clinton has been a presidential candidate for a month maybe, and she's had 13 questions asked by the press."
As the Iraq controversy built, Bush aides increasingly focused on Clinton and the contrast between her reclusiveness and Bush's openness. "It continues to be interesting, the extent to which every single verb, noun, adverb, and adjective that he utters is psychoanalyzed," one Bush aide said of the former Florida governor. "There's clearly a different standard from Hillary Clinton. It's remarkable how little she has engaged with the public and the press since she became a candidate."
"Yes, he is held to a different standard," the aide continued. "And that's okay. But it's stunning that she is allowed to evade the press and evade the public in the way that she is being allowed."
One example. At the same time Bush was going through the Iraq questioning, Annie Karni, a Politico reporter covering Hillary Clinton, tweeted a photo of a man in a suit — apparently someone associated with Clinton — standing in front of a drape concealing some sort of hallway. Karni's tweet said: "My view of @HillaryClinton entering her finance meeting in Red Hook." Clinton was behind that drape somewhere, but the press — much less the public — could forget about having any sort of interaction with her.
It is literally impossible to imagine Clinton — besieged by questions about the Clinton Foundation, her secret email system, trade, and other hot issues — making herself available to voters and the press the way Bush has. The 13 questions Clinton has taken over the course of more than a month — one of which was "How are you liking Iowa?" — told the public nearly nothing about her, her campaign, or any issue of the moment. Before that, it has been more than two months since her brief "Guernica" news conference in which she took a few questions about the email system. Clinton is under increasing pressure from the press — journalists are suggesting questions they would ask if they only had the chance and others are calculating the time since Clinton last answered any question at all — but the fact is, she is getting away with it.
So yes, Bush had difficulties answering a straightforward question about Iraq. But voters, and journalists, too, should remember that it only happened because he is out there, making himself available every day. When is the Democratic frontrunner going to do the same?
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