Jeb: ‘I will talk less’ than Obama

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/16/16 8:15 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush vowed Tuesday that if elected president, he will be a man of few words.

“As president, I can promise you this: I will talk less” than President Obama, Bush said during a forum in Aiken, S.C. “No grandiosity unless you’re seriously committed to backing up your word.”

{mosads}Bush’s comments came after Obama slammed Republicans during a press conference Tuesday, where he went after fellow GOP candidates Donald Trump and Marco Rubio as well as Republicans in Congress.

“On Day One, you will never hear me complaining about my predecessor,” Bush said, arguing that Obama blamed former President George W. Bush during his tenure.

George W. Bush is campaigning this week with his brother in South Carolina, where Jeb Bush said there was a “cool possibility” for Palmetto State voters to “reset” the GOP race, in which he has been struggling.

“I will be a commander in chief, not an agitator in chief,” Jeb Bush insisted Tuesday, saying the “ultimate goal should be peace through strength, and today we are moving in absolutely the opposite direction.”

“Man, the guy can deliver a speech, but he’s using his skills to divide the country,” Bush said of Obama later during a question-and-answer part of the forum.

Bush criticized Obama for his response to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying “the containment strategy of the president is failing” and that the Islamic militants “win every day that they exist.”

Without naming his rivals, Bush also criticized calls from Trump and Ted Cruz to “bomb the shit” out of ISIS, as Trump has said, or carpet-bomb the militant group, as advocated by Cruz.

“These are not serious plans,” Bush said.

Bush is hoping for a strong showing Saturday during the primary in South Carolina.