Jeb Bush bears political burden of divisive name as he considers White House bid
The former governor of the US state of Florida struggled when asked whether he would have supported an Iraq invasion based on what is known now.
Over the past week, Jeb Bush came face-to-face with the perils of carrying a politically divisive family name, skirmishing with voters over the Iraq war and continuing to struggle with how to differentiate himself from his brother.
Asked repeatedly in recent days whether he would have supported an Iraq invasion based on what is known now, the former governor of the US state of Florida has replied "Yes", "I don't know", or has refused to answer, depending on the venue.
The missteps mark the toughest period yet for Bush's still-undeclared presidential campaign and have lit a fire under his likely Republican opponents, many of whom have happily proclaimed that they would not authorise the Iraq invasion under those conditions. Many conservative leaders and pundits are also lacerating Bush for appearing unprepared to address an obvious topic and are casting him as a tone-deaf relic of the party elite.
"These are the questions that are extraordinarily important for the country and I think if you're considering running for president, you need to answer the question," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is weighing his own 2016 bid, said on radio on Wednesday.
The debate within the Republican party over a 12-year-old invasion reflects the extent to which Iraq has become the party's Vietnam - a divisive and largely failed undertaking that the party once supported but would now like to forget.
The would-you-have-authorised-the-war question allows even the most hawkish Republicans to answer "no", given that US forces never discovered the weapons of mass destruction that were the basis for the military operation.