I doubt it. In my experience, it tends to be (more than anyone else) Republicans who oppose stricter gun control, so it doesn’t surprise me that he displayed a complete lack of sympathy or empathy regarding the shooting. Why would he acknowledge how terrible it was when that would mean he’d have to take a closer look at the issue and then, in turn, talk about why it’s happening so frequently? He knows, most likely, that it directly conflicts with his personal views regarding gun laws, so his acknowledgement was to do nothing more than shrug his shoulders, and many of his supporters most likely feel the same way.

His downfall? No. That’s probably his last name. This is just more dirt on the grave.

I don’t think he had anywhere to fall from. He has slid steadily in the polls since he entered the race, and he gives the overall impression that he’s not all that bothered about the election, period.

No. Just another gaffe.

No, and actually it’s true. May sound a little flippant but really, it’s the truth. If people wish to take offense they will, I don’t, even though I could give a flying flip about Bush.

Could you imagine how the right-wing would scream if someone said (especially Obama) the same about the Boston Marathon bombing? Or any other event that had been branded as “terrorism”, or a cop or soldier dying in the line of duty? Fox News would go catatonic in their fits of rage.

Given the gun culture and sheer number of guns that exist in the US, nothing will prevent these sorts of shootings in the future. Just like nothing will prevent terrorist acts in the future. You must try to prevent the next one, and not ignore the problem with the excuse of “stuff happens”.

@Coloma A fair percentage of political gaffes are about speaking the truth. McCarthy may well lose the speakership for his candor on the real reason for the never ending Benghazi hearings, and Obama caught hell for stating “in times of stress Americans hug their bibles and their guns.”

@Inara27 But it’s true, stuff happens, whether that is babies dying of cancer or terrorist attacks or uprisings that kill innocents, or mass murders. This is not to say that we shouldn’t try and find a cure for cancer or a way to intervene when possible but really, there is no new news under the sun. These events are part of humanities history and always will be from the time of the Crusades and into modern times.

Coming from a purely factual position as long as there are humans this shit will happen, period.

@stanleybmanly True, and I for one like truth tellers, we have enough namby, pamby, mealy mouthed, sugar coated, tell the people what they want to hear, as it is.

No, he is failing already. I think we are learning the not-as-dim brother was already President.

As I posted on twitter this morning.

9/11? stuffhappens
ISIS Behaeading? stuffhappens.

@Coloma But the point is that this stuff is happening in the United States more than any other country and more often now than even 6 years ago so doesn’t it behoove us not to dismiss it as a problem that could possibly have some solutions? Or at least shouldn’t we be able to lessen the frequency?

I work in a big open computer lab at a community college and I don’t want us to be next.

@janbb Of course, I agree, I don’t want to get mowed down in my local Regal Cinemas either, just saying that stating this stuff does happen is not necessarily minimizing, just telling it like it is. From a spiritual perspective it is what it is and while working towards solutions to big problems is good and proactive it doesn’t change what is or has happened. It happens, it’s happened and stating such doesn’t mean a lackadaisical attitude, just stating a fact, stuff happens. You know…the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

That was a thoughtless and stupid statement on his part. Even if he thinks it, the fact that he blurted this out as people are just beginning to deal with tragic losses suggests Bush has limited leadership abilities.

Can you provide a link for context?

@Cruiser The first thing that came up was my Fluther question but here’s a better link to the story.

I think that his ship was sinking anyway, and this doesn’t really change his trajectory. It doesn’t improve , for sure.

You have to wonder about his advisors – they are doing a shitty job of telling him what to say and how to say it.

I’m kind of with @Coloma. He used the general word “stuff” as a catch all that all sorts of crappy things happen.

Bush usually speaks fairly well, and I don’t doubt he cares about those who were shot. It wouldn’t even occur to me to knit pick about him saying “stuff happens.” I felt he was saying stuff happens and what’s important is how we react and deal with it. Isn’t that what most people feel is a healthy attitude in riding out bumps in the road of life? We learn, change, and overcome.

Let’s just test this one out. If you were driving a car with your kid in it and you didn’t make them wear a seatbelt and they got killed, would you say “Stuff happens?”

I imagine he is not uncaring but it was a thoughtless way to speak about something tragic and particularly something that could have been prevented from happening.

He could have chosen better words, but when I heard him say it, I immediately thought about all the hurricanes I went through when he was governor of the state I lived in. I can understand that to the people who just lost family and friends in the shooting what he said might have sounded uncaring, he could have chosen better words, but when Rabbi Kushner says, “bad things happen to good people,” and, others say “life is random,” it’s in a similar vein isn’t it?

If your favorite candidate had said it, would you be just as bothered by it?

I don’t want to have a long back and forth about this but I am trying to make a distinction between things that are caused by human error and things are truly random accidents such as being struck by lightning. Gun violence is preventable or at least can be diminished if we address the problem rather than accepting it as the norm.

(I wish I had a favorite candidate.)

There is a longer clip of the comment on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/02/politics/jeb-bush-donald-trump-stuff-happens/

Overall he just doesn’t seem to care.

I am not sure this will be his downfall as he has already been in a deep tailspin for a while now. I do see the point he was trying to make and it is a summary of the sad state of affairs our country is knee deep in. His statement was taken out of context and the liberal media is thrashing this man for his sensitivities towards this tragedy…

“Look stuff happens, there’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something and it’s not always the right thing to do,”

Yes indeed our societal knee-jerk reactions are not always reflective of the right thing we really need to do to address and fix the problems and tragedies that we face as a society almost daily and IMO Bush was merely shining a light on this reality with his statement.

He seemed to shrug it off as just another natural disaster we can do nothing about. I don’t want a person like this in the Presidency.

He receives a lot of money from the gun lobby. This is part of his recalcitrance to addressing this problem seriously. Like all the more successful politicians of this era, what he privately believes is of no consequence, he is a pragmatist. But don’t fool yourselves. He is the trusted favorite of the kingmakers.

It is early in the election cycle and yes, he is failing right now, but he has yet to spend real money. Later, when in the final furlong, you will see a lot of angels come to him with deep pockets and the floodgates to his Super Pack will fling wide open. He is the only viable conservative Great White Hope if and when Hillary or some other pinko Democrat gives the Republicans a good run for their money. He has proven himself an obedient and excellent servant to his class. I cite his services to his family, his father, his brother, the Carlisle Group, and especially as governor of Florida. He is being painted as too moderate, not conservative enough—which is bullshit—in order to make him more attractive to fence riders and crossovers and therefore widen his voter base.

Don’t discount this guy’s resources and affinity with the power brokers who believe in protecting the status quo and reversing every single program the Obama administration has attempted to put into place in order to return the people’s tax money in the form of needed services and grow a better educated, healthier and therefore wealthier nation—a nation who’s wealth could be more equitably shared under said programs among the people who actually go out an earn it.

The fear among his class is that, although they were successful in hindering Obama’s most ambitious changes—and sabotaging others in committee before they were voted on—Obama may have set a trend among we the people. The idea that someone like Sanders can even register on the political radar at all scares the living shit out of them. They are afraid their popular mouthpieces such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et al, may be losing ground to grass roots need, the reality of low wages, poor health care, poor education, poor gun control and on and on and on… They must turn this tide back before the peasants stop buying the homilies and finally realize what fools they’ve been. The peasants are revolting.

God forbid if the serfs actually woke up and used the modicum of democracy left to them to actually change these people’s command and control of a corrupt system that pays them so well. Bush is their Golden Boy. Don’t interpret this slow start as a the way the race will go. The candidates have only just burst out of the gate. They’r just measuring the mood of the nation right now.

To break out of the current pack running for the Republican presidential nomination, all you have to do is not say things that are completely idiotic. It is a pretty low bar to go over and Bush’s remark, though not very well thought out, is still not in the completely idiotic range. Compare it to things regularly said by the front runners Trump, Fiorina and Carson.

@janbb I agree there is a difference between the two things you mentioned, but if someone’s child was struck by lightening and killed (God forbid) I think someone saying “stuff happens” would still be pretty upsetting to that parent.

I’d have to guess that you want something done about guns in America, and what really bothers you about his phrasing is that to you it implies Jeb isn’t going to change anything regarding gun violence. I don’t know where he stands in the issue, but I think that is what bothers you most, is it is an important issue to you, and taps into your own fears maybe? Would you agree?

There’s a difference between not “sugarcoating” something and coming across as aloof, uncaring and unthinking about it.

Not with his compassionate conservative supporters.

Yeah, it isn’t the truth of the matter, but rather the implication that it is routine like the weather or mosquitos. He is the smarter brother, but when it comes to conservatives, that fact is not a plus. In fact, the movement has become rather distinguished for its suspicion and distrust of intelligence and those betraying signs of being afflicted by it.