Jeb on Oregon Massacre: Stuff Happens

“Before we start calling for more laws, I think we ought to consider why we don’t enforce the laws we have”, Carly Fiorina said. “I’m very happy to see Jeb hold his own”, said Fred Zeidman, a Houston businessman raising money for Bush.

‘But I resist the notion-and I had this challenge as governor-because we had-look, stuff happens, there’s always a crisis.

“We’re taking people’s rights away each time we do that and we’re not necessarily focusing on the right challenge”, he said.

Bush attempted to distance himself from the comments, later telling a reporter that what he said “wasn’t a mistake”, and that he was not referring specifically to the Oregon shooting when he made his comments.

“No, it wasn’t a mistake”.

“Even if they’re great on other stuff for a couple of election cycles, you got to vote against them and let them know precisely why you’re voting against them”, he said.

“What is wrong with us that we can’t stand up to the NRA, to the gun lobby and the gun manufacturers they represent”, Clinton asked.

“Things happen all the time”, Bush replied. “And there is just no evidence that these gun laws would prevent these shootings”.

Democrats at the national level took a far more aggressive tack on the issue.

It took a certain callousness to suggest that America cries for gun control because of a “unique event”.

Greenberg, who served in World War II and Korea, said he supported Bush’s positions on welcoming legal immigration, increasing economic opportunity for families, and a stronger global presence for the United States.

Jeb Bush just pissed a lot of people off. “You judge him on his competence, and he got the job done in Florida“. “And the cumulative effect of this is, in a few cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law, and you’re imposing on large numbers of people burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder to protect liberty”.

Jeb Bush said he’d take a different tact than his father did with Souter, if he’s elected president, putting forth only those nominees with a known record that reveals their judicial philosophies, then using his political clout to push them through the Senate.

Bush’s “free stuff” remarks are the latest wrong note in his flagging campaign.

But Obama dug in, saying he’s asked his team to “scrub” federal regulations in search of legal authority to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, and find legal justification for additional actions the administration can take unilaterally ‘that might prevent even a handful of these tragic deaths from taking place’. “And unless we change that political dynamic, we’re not going to be able to make a – a big dent in this problem”.

Seeing a campaign gaffe in the making, the reporter pushed the governor: “Well you said, “Stuff happens”.

GOPs went after Obama today for politicizing the tragedy – something he admitted hours after the shooting that he was doing to bring legislative attention to gun control measures.