Jeb's Team

++Looking over Jeb's roster of advisers,I was struck by Theodore Hesbergh's statement to me when we were on the same committee evaluating scholarships for undergraduates. He said," Pity these young people,they will grow up in a world determined by 80-year olds." 

++I personally know many of Jeb's advisers and admire many of them but others are permanently tarnished by the Iraq War and the torture regime of the United States. Some are quite elderly--Henry Kissinger,George Schulz, James Baker. No one is younger than me. You have hard-line Cubans and a few unreconstructed Cold Warriors. Technically, you have international finance covered with Zoellick and Wolfowitz. But this aspect is thin.

++Missing from his advisers are people who know about Asia,Latin America, and Africa. The Atlanticists are pretty old. 

++It is no a roster that speaks to the challenges of the 21st Century. It is a selection of who's who in the Republican world, which once had foreign policy expertise but have dimmed in the new global economy and multi-polar world. 

++The problem is that this may be as good as it gets for the GOP. Since President Obama was elected in 2008, Republicans have not done the necessary policy thinking they did between elections during the Clinton years. We saw this with Romney's campaign. There was nothing about 3/4rds of people who live on planet earth. Romney said he would farm out Middle Eastern policy to Bibi Netanyahu--so I guess we would have supported Al Qaeda in Syria.  The only European issue was Russia and, of course,China but that was because Romney was embarrassed by his business ties there.

++After Romney's defeat, you would expect some foreign policy deliberations but so far I haven't seen them. It is the No Obama Policy--that is policy-free just oppose whatever Obama does.

++Jeb's speech did not get good reviews, even from the new Republican party. I think only Politico raved about it. Jeb seemed stale, blundered with facts,and reversed what his brother said about an Iran deal and out his position as the same as Bibi.His brother said no deal was possible that would totally prohibit Iran from enriching uranium. Israel wants no ability--hence no deal.

++What the United States must do is to come to grips with all the implications of our failures in Iraq, which are not just no weapons of mass destruction and not creating a secure political environment.

++His selection of Michael Hayden as one of his intelligence advisers should concern everyone because of Hayden's defense of torture and the NSA programs.

++Still not even close to the 21st century. But politically it serves notice on the others in the GOP field that the Family still rules. Maybe that was the point.