Jeb Bush
While Hillary Clinton has not just given a sound bite on Freddie Gray and Baltimore but has spoken in depth on
policing reform and mass incarceration, the Republican presidential candidates have struggled to strike the right note.
Sen. Rand Paul took a break from posturing as the Republican who cares about equal justice to joke that he was glad his train hadn't stopped while passing through Baltimore Monday night. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, meanwhile, followed his general course of trying not to say anything concrete about issues he's weak on, which is most of them:
“Our prayers for restoration of peace in Baltimore,” he posted on Twitter, without elaboration.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called for "a commitment to the rule of law" in the case of rioters and an investigation into Freddie Gray's death "as quickly as possible so that people know that the system works for them." (Psst, Jeb: They already know it doesn't, and the results of an investigation are likely to reinforce that.)
New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro gets an honorable mention for, like the Republican candidates, struggling to strike the right note:
For those seeking the White House, the conflagration in Baltimore exposed a complicated truth: The racial comity that the election of Barack Obama seemed to promise has not materialized, forcing them to grapple with a red-hot, deeply unresolved dynamic that strays far from their carefully crafted messages and favored themes.
Seriously, who needed Baltimore to expose the fact that electing Barack Obama president did not make racism go away and that anyone who thought it would was staggeringly wrong? We've been seeing that every day since he started campaigning. Racism and its effects are indeed complicated, but the fact that they exist should not come as a surprise to even the dullest-witted of political observers. Let's extend that: surprise that they exist should not seem like a useful rhetorical device to even the dullest-witted of political observers.