I'm not pro-Trump, except to the extent that he challenges the GOP to rise to a higher level, and challenges both parties to have a more positive message. I would not be shocked to see him defeat his adversaries in the primaries. Would be shocked if he wins the office. However, I do think that he's a better political tactician than he's getting credit for.

The validity of Trump saying "Bush didn't really keep us safe: case in point, 9/11" -- is really a complicated idea, that draws out all sorts of conflicting views. It certainly forces Jeb to be defensive, and sort of rattles everybody's cages. It's well known that there was intelligence to the effect of: something is about to happen. The CIA knew about the aviation trainee Muslims, and had a watchlist, and there were overstayed visas.

So it's not an impossible stretch to think that 9/11 could have been prevented by a super-genius, super-paranoid POTUS that would have insisted that locks be put on the cockpit doors on the first day of office, perhaps just by reading Tom Clancy. Or, that heightened airport security should check for anything that could possibly be used as a weapon. Or that an air marshal be on every flight.

Trump should have included Bill Clinton in his glibness, since both he and GWB bear some ownership of the preconditions for 9/11. I would argue that Clinton is more culpable, for reasons that are long discussed, but he wasn't the POTUS anymore. So it's a kind of revisionist wash, that Trump is exploiting a bit, but it's got a kind political genius to it. Riles everybody, puts Jeb on his heels, and gives him the option of laying an even heavier critique on Clinton. All the while saying "I don't blame anybody".