Please, Jeb, stop talking: Losing the primary will be a mercy for him and his big mouth

He may not see it quite yet, but hopefully in a few months time, Jeb Bush will be able to sit down and write Donald Trump and Ted Cruz grateful letters for foreclosing his Republican primary chances quickly. For as much as it may pain Jeb never get the same chance his brother did to ruin this nation from the highest office in the land, being gently retired from the spotlight cannot be regarded as anything less than a mercy. For Jeb Bush is only better than his father and brother in one area of politics, and this is saying a lot: The ability to say confounding things that no normal human being would ever think is appropriate. The past 24 hours have borne witness to two such moments, which were called "boners" in a more innocent time. Yesterday, at a meet and greet in South Carolina, Bush was asked about the non-indictment in a Cleveland case where police killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was playing in the park with a toy gun, in a state that supposedly has open carry laws. Bush started by saying "the process worked," a statement that only makes sense if you think the process should allow police to summarily execute junior high students who have broken no laws and literally have not done anything wrong. But, in the grand tradition of bores everywhere, he kept digging that hole. "I think that Chicago's got a lot of work to do to rebuild trust. The level of violence is abhorrent," he continued. Tamir Rice, it is worth noting, was killed in Cleveland. But this gaffe really has a broader WTF quality to it, because even if this incident had happened in Chicago, the general "level of violence" in the city has nothing to do with it. Rice was, it is worth noting once more, 12 years old and playing with a toy. This has nothing to do with any level of violence in any city. It's obvious that Bush's strategy, when asked about things like the Black Lives Matter movement, is to pivot to Republican-friendly talking points that portray our cities as violent war zones that justify a shoot-first mentality. That narrative is self-evidently racist, but the fact that he pulled it out to frame the shooting of a 12-year-old kid who was just playing in the park drives home that fact with a chilling finality. That was bad enough, but then it was reported that He may not see it quite yet, but hopefully in a few months time, Jeb Bush will be able to sit down and write Donald Trump and Ted Cruz grateful letters for foreclosing his Republican primary chances quickly. For as much as it may pain Jeb never get the same chance his brother did to ruin this nation from the highest office in the land, being gently retired from the spotlight cannot be regarded as anything less than a mercy. For Jeb Bush is only better than his father and brother in one area of politics, and this is saying a lot: The ability to say confounding things that no normal human being would ever think is appropriate. The past 24 hours have borne witness to two such moments, which were called "boners" in a more innocent time. Yesterday, at a meet and greet in South Carolina, Bush was asked about the non-indictment in a Cleveland case where police killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was playing in the park with a toy gun, in a state that supposedly has open carry laws. Bush started by saying "the process worked," a statement that only makes sense if you think the process should allow police to summarily execute junior high students who have broken no laws and literally have not done anything wrong. But, in the grand tradition of bores everywhere, he kept digging that hole. "I think that Chicago's got a lot of work to do to rebuild trust. The level of violence is abhorrent," he continued. Tamir Rice, it is worth noting, was killed in Cleveland. But this gaffe really has a broader WTF quality to it, because even if this incident had happened in Chicago, the general "level of violence" in the city has nothing to do with it. Rice was, it is worth noting once more, 12 years old and playing with a toy. This has nothing to do with any level of violence in any city. It's obvious that Bush's strategy, when asked about things like the Black Lives Matter movement, is to pivot to Republican-friendly talking points that portray our cities as violent war zones that justify a shoot-first mentality. That narrative is self-evidently racist, but the fact that he pulled it out to frame the shooting of a 12-year-old kid who was just playing in the park drives home that fact with a chilling finality. That was bad enough, but then it was reported that 

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