As Jeb Bush
preps for his big debut at the Detroit Economic Club today, his past comments on immigration are already haunting his future.
This is the stuff primary attack ads are made of:
On Dreamers
"For people who have no country to go back to — which are many of the DREAMers — it's ridiculous to think that there shouldn't be some accelerated path to citizenship."
On revitalizing Detroit through immigration
"If I was mayor of Detroit, I would say, ‘I want to repopulate my city’… It just seems to me that maybe if you open up our doors in a fair way and unleashed the spirit of peoples' hard work, Detroit could become in really short order, one of the great American cities again."
Bush's comments, made at an appearance at the Hispanic Leadership network in April 2013, are literally shocking GOP conservatives, reports
Alexandra Jaffe.
"Wow" is also what conservative strategist Daniel Horowitz, who edits the site ConservativeReview.com, said when he saw them.
"I'm just reading this stuff — wow," he said. "This is insane. Honestly, I don't take him seriously, because of [comments like] these and because of the Bush name it's very hard to see him getting anywhere in a primary."
And it was the response to the comments from Brent Bozell, chairman of the conservative group ForAmerica.
"That thinking is utterly contrary to what grassroots Republicans believe. He is reflecting the viewpoint of the chamber of commerce and the businesses," he said.
Wow. A Republican taking the view of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the business community—that’s just not gonna sell to the base.