Jeb Bush may not be ready for prime time

The principal rationale of Jeb Bush's presidential candidacy is that he is best in class, a polished politician with both experience and savvy who is a grade above the rest. He may be genetically tied to an unpopular former president, but he is the closest thing the Republicans have to a complete package.

That's the theory, anyway. But the ongoing controversy over his position on the Iraq War shows that Bush does not seem to have done even basic homework on his most obvious weakness. First, in an interview earlier this week, he said he would have invaded Iraq, even with the knowledge of how the war turned out. Then he backtracked somewhat on Tuesday evening, telling Sean Hannity that he misunderstood the question. Then, when given the chance to clarify his position, he dissolved into inscrutability, saying the question was a "hypothetical."

Perhaps most painfully, he even repeated one of his brother's most infamous lines: "Mistakes were made."

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Political observers are surprised, to say the least, that Bush has not figured out a way to address this issue. As Dan Pfeiffer, a former aide to President Obama, put it, "I would have loved to have been in the meeting when the Bush campaign decided not to prepare for the Iraq question." His competitors are bound to suggest that Jeb Bush is not as ready for prime time as he thinks he is.