My brother was right, it's the world that changed.
Back in the day, President George W. Bush declared Russian leader Vladimir Putin a man he could deal with. He looked into Putin's eyes, and "
got a sense of his soul."
Given that this positive opinion of Putin is now shared by approximately nobody, barring certain swooning Fox News talking heads, an observer would have to come to one of two conclusions. One, that George W. Bush was a terrible judge of character who the Russian president played like a fiddle—or two, that Putin started out as an ex-KGB officer with a heart of gold, but only after that meeting devolved into being a real stinker.
You can guess which of those two theories the most current Bush incarnation prefers.
How does he square that difference? Jeb Bush said Thursday that Putin has evolved over the years.
"I think Putin has changed, for sure. He has changed over time and he has been emboldened by, whether it's true or not, the perception is that we've pulled back," Bush said. "So people do change and this is an example of that."
He didn't just changed, but Obama
made him change, what with not bombing enough things and emboldening him and so on. Sure, whatever. Say what you want about Jeb Bush, it's clear he has a keen understanding of what a fine job his brother did and how it all went to hell after George Bush left.
"I think to deal with Putin, you need to deal from strength. He's a bully," Bush said in Berlin Wednesday, repeating a message he's using throughout his Europe trip this week. "You enable bad behavior when you're nuanced with a guy like that."
And if there's one thing a Bush understands, it's rejecting nuance.
Sigh. We really are going to do this all over again, apparently. The same phrases, the same neoconservative drum-beaters, the same nameplates on the doors. Stock up on liquor, America, you'll need it.