GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush seems to be about as tone deaf as Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder when it comes to the conversation regarding the team's potential name change. Sadly, Bush also seems like he could use a refresher course on U.S. geography as well. Snyder, at the center of a debate over the political correctness of his team's Native American-based moniker, has consistently shown through words and actions that he believes the term "Redskins" is not offensive and that he therefore will not, under any circumstances, change it. Bush, speaking to supporters at a rally in New Hampshire on Wednesday, doubled down on his prior backhanding away of a possible Redskins name change and added an interesting suggestion based on an apparent lack of knowledge on where the team actually plays.
After suggesting that "this is not the worst time in American history," and pointing to the left's increasing focus on political correctness, Bush found a way to link the current economic and social turmoil facing the nation to the controversy surrounding the Redskins team name.
"You know, I was asked on a sports talk show, I was asked my views on the Washington Redskins," Bush said, via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post. "And I said look, you know, there's a lot of big pressing problems here; I don't think we need to be so politically correct, and try to, through government, take the name Redskins off. If that's what they want, leave them alone, for crying out loud. Let's worry about the complicated nature of our regulations and taxes and other things.
"And the left went crazy, as you might expect, because they are a little more politically correct these days. And someone sent me an e-mail and said 'Jeb, the term Redskins isn't the pejorative; it's Washington that's the pejorative.' If they're going to change their name, I don't know what you'd call it, Northern Virginia Redskins or something like that."
The NFL's D.C.-based franchise, of course, plays their home games at FedEx field, which is in Landover, Maryland.
Geographical mistakes aside, this isn't the first time Bush has weighed in on the matter. In September, Bush, an upper class Caucasian male, stated during a radio interview that "Native American tribes generally don't find [Redskins] offensive." Just last week, he made a similar statement during an interview with Hugh Hewitt, only this time Bush was claiming the whole "pejorative" thing as his own idea.
And in an interview with Fox Sports 1 earlier this month, Bush suggested that the government should step back and allow a potential name change, like people's opinions, to happen "naturally, organically."
Interestingly, as Juana Summers of Mashable noted, Snyder is a Bush supporter, having committed $100,000 to a Super PAC financing Bush's presidential bid.
