May 18, 2015 4 min read

John Ellis “Jeb” Bush, the yet-to-announce, front-running, Republican presidential candidate, has clearly stated, “I’m my own man.”

Translation: He wants everybody to know that he shouldn’t be compared to his older brother, who was once less popular than diarrhea.

But Jeb has to overcome a few obstacles to convince voters he’s truly his “own man” – some of them self-inflicted.

Let’s face it, by the time George W. Bush left office in 2009, the nation’s economy was in shambles, and clear-eyed Americans had wondered why the U.S. military had become ensnared in two expensive wars – one of which was designed to destroy those non-existent “weapons of mass destruction.”

So, when Jeb Bush was asked, on Fox News (if), “Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion (of Iraq),” he missed the golden opportunity to simply say, “No.”

Instead, he gave nearly an identical response to George Bush’s.

“In retrospect, the intelligence that everybody saw, that the world saw, not just the United States was faulty,” Jeb replied.

Except for the word “faulty,” by the way, George used the word “false.”

This being a slowly advancing election season, though, Jeb added, “I would have (authorized the invasion), and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody,” Bush said, “and so would have almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got.”

Hillary Clinton, though, in her book “Hard Choices,” freely admitted, “I still got it wrong (her vote for the invasion). Plain and simple.”

It’s clear that if Clinton were asked if she’d still vote to invade Iraq, “knowing what we know now,” based on her previous statements, she’d give a resolute “No.”

Bush, however, was caught so flat-footed about the question, that he bungled the response.

So much so, that Laura Ingraham, a conservative radio show host blasted him, while she even (of all things), agreed with Hillary Clinton.

“You can’t still think that going into Iraq, now, as a sane human being, was the right thing to do,” Ingraham told her audience.

“If you do, there has to be something wrong with you,” she added.

And to add insult to injury, Ingraham answered for the Democrat’s leading candidate, herself.

“Hillary wouldn’t authorize the war now, if she knew what she knows now.”

I’m not the only person questioning if Bush is really his “own man.”

So does Ingraham.

There’s more proof that a Jeb Bush presidency might not be distinguishable from a George W. Bush one.

Earlier in May, Jeb appeared in New York City in a room full of wealthy, rightwing donors.

He strayed from being his “own man,” when he acknowledged to his potential investors that, “If you want to know who I listen for advice (on Israel), it’s him,” meaning his older brother.

It’s been known for months that Jeb Bush has made use of a number of his brother’s former advisers. But nobody had heard him say that his chief adviser for matters dealing with Israel and the Middle East was none other than George W. Bush.

One of the participants in the room that day, was shocked by Jeb’s admission.

“I started looking around and wondering if people were recording it. It was jarring,” the potential donor said. “If video of it got out, it’d be devastating.”

Did he just say “devastating?”

Ouch!

There’s no denying he’ll still be considered to be a formidable presidential candidate, whenever he decides to run.

But there will be continuing questions about how he differs from his brother on matters of importance.

So far, he’s shown that despite his best efforts to appear to be a different kind of Bush, he’s failing in that regard.

Meanwhile, the Democrat’s frontrunner, Hillary Clinton will, most likely, be questioned about how her presidency could differ from her husband, former president, and possible future First Husband, Bill’s.

I’m not sure, but if it’s anything like similar questions she was asked when she mounted her 2008 bid for the presidency, her response just might be, “Which part, the peace or the prosperity?”

Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net