We haven’t heard much from failed 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush since he was vanquished from the GOP primary battlefield by Trump the Destroyer. Jeb was a shoo-in for the GOP nomination in 2016, a coronation for the latest member of the Bush monarchy to ascend to the White House throne.

The media smart set was convinced Jeb would win the nomination. Then again, the same media cranks were convinced Michael Avenatti would banish President Trump. CNN’s pride and joy, Brian Stelter, told Avenatti, “I’m taking you seriously as a contender.” That prediction turned out as well as most CNN stories involving President Trump. Instead, Avenatti was banished to a long spell in prison.

In late 2014, CNN was convinced it was Jeb’s time, “Bush surges to 2016 GOP frontrunner.” By the summer of 2015, Reuters joined the chorus, “Republican Bush still the favorite in political prediction markets.” So did the Wall Street Journal proclaiming, “Online exchange shows Jeb Bush as the GOP’s 2016 favorite.”

Mind you, the ruling class was happy for Jeb to be the GOP nominee, as long as he lost to the other anointed one, a family member of another political dynasty, the Clinton Family. Given that there would be little difference between a Jeb and Hillary presidency, the establishment would have been happy with either one, just not the guy with the Queens accent who they wanted back in New York rather than in the White House.

A funny thing happened on the way to the coronation. The milquetoast and uninspiring Jeb finally had an identity, an image not created by his political handlers but by the television reality show impresario.

It is late summer 2015 and the branding of the media-anointed front runner began. The Donald called Jeb "a very low-energy kind of guy" on September 2, "a low-energy person" on August 28, "very low energy" on August 24, and other variations of the “low energy Jeb” theme.

That was game, set, and match. Jeb was branded as a dullard, and he went from front runner to footnote. His only memorable accomplishment was spending $150 million for all of three delegates. Jeb was not only low energy but also a sore loser, saying of his party’s nominee, “I cannot support his candidacy.”

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Trump supporters laughed at low-energy Jeb, and he faded away to sulk, along with his other low-energy rival, who Trump also “schlonged,” Hillary Clinton. Yet in the current age of woke, Jeb awoke and found some energy to cast stones at a former president. Not Obama, over who the Bushes never uttered a critical word, but Trump.

Last week Jeb took to Twitter to show the world that he was awake and woke.

I wonder how our medal totals would be if we had an exclusionary immigration system which we have had for the last few years. My heart swells for all of our medalists, including those whose families have come from far off lands to love our country.

Jeb must have been in low energy mode when he composed the tweet or else had Joe Biden write the tweet, given its incoherence. I think he meant if we “did not” have an exclusionary immigration system, suggesting we had one under his nemesis, Donald Trump.

Is Jeb implying that American medalists at the current Olympics came to America during the past 8 months of Biden’s open borders presidency? Did they cross the border in March and make the U.S. Olympic team in July?

If Trump had an exclusionary system, that means Jeb approves of Biden’s inclusionary system, letting everyone and anyone into America. As the New York Times describes, “The number of migrants arriving at the border was the largest in years.” But Jeb is happy since few are being excluded from free admission into the U.S. regardless of the consequences.

The last time we had such a border surge was in 2000 when Jeb’s brother George was in charge, with 1.6 million apprehensions. And that was measuring apprehensions. How many more than the 1.6 million apprehended illegal border crossers made it through? Two times as many? Five times? Ten times? Does anyone know? Does the media care to investigate?

Jeb’s tweet also implies that our Olympic medal totals are off. At latest count, the United States led with 113 total medals, ahead of China at 88 and Russia at 71. How open are the latter two countries’ borders to immigrants, illegal or otherwise? It seems other medal-rich countries are doing fine in the medal counts with a far more secure border than President Trump could have even imagined in his wildest dreams.

Australia and New Zealand rank number 6 and 13 respectively in the medal count. How easy is it to enter those countries compared to America? If you can even get there, you will be in mandatory quarantine for several weeks and won’t be able to stay permanently unless you bring some essential and necessary job skills. How’s that for exclusionary Jeb?

Jeb must believe that American-born athletes or those who migrated here legally are somehow inferior athletes compared to those illegally entering the country. By his logic, the next Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky is at this moment being smuggled across the southern border by some coyote,  somehow managing to practice their Olympic sport while cooped up in a shipping container with 60 other future Olympians.

As these illegal immigrants, untested and unvaccinated for COVID are being shipped all across America, acting as superspreaders, how many US athletes could have been exposed to COVID, testing positive, losing their chance to compete in the Olympics?

What if Kate Steinle was a potential Olympic athlete, shot by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco? Or America Thayer, the lady in Minnesota recently beheaded by an illegal immigrant? How exactly does Jeb’s immigration policy dreams help here?

Country of origin doesn’t even play much into the Olympics. How many athletes are living, studying, and training at an American institution but representing the country of their birth? As an example, France’s Olympic basketball team has five NBA players. And how will unlimited immigration into the U.S. improve America’s medal count?

Instead of celebrating athletic achievement and excellence, regardless of which flag athletes compete under, and being appreciative that the games even took place during a world disrupting pandemic, Jeb has found the energy to take shots at President Trump and virtue signal to his handful of NeverTrump supporters that he is woke and back in the game.

Is he testing the waters for a run in 2024? If so, his financial backers must really be stuck on stupid after his 2016 flameout. Or is he just tired of his nickname “Low Energy Jeb”, hoping to replace it with something simpler like “Woke Jeb”?

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a physician and writer. He is on sabbatical from social media.

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