You would think if there’s any place a Republican candidate for President can go to get softball questions tossed to him, it would be Fox News. But earlier this morning Senator Marco Rubio stepped into the trap that is the invasion of Iraq.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, Rubio stumbled his way through the Iraq matter with much the same lack of clarity as Jeb Bush has in recent days. Wallace referenced Bush in his question, and even said the former Governor of Florida had eventually told the media:

“I would not have gone into Iraq.”

To which Rubio replied:

“It was not a mistake.”

Wallace, attempting to give Rubio room to extricate himself from the corner he had just painted himself into, reminded the Florida Senator that his question was based on “what we know now.” Rubio said:

“Well, based on what we know now, I would not have thought Manny Pacquiao was going to beat [Floyd Mayweather] in that fight a few weeks ago. The question was whether it was a mistake, and my answer is, it’s not a mistake. I still say it was not a mistake because the president was presented with intelligence that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, it was governed by a man who had committed atrocities in the past with weapons of mass destruction.”

Wallace again gave Senator Rubio a way out of the quicksand which was beginning to consume him:

“But what [Megyn Kelly] asked was, ‘Was it a mistake to go to go to war with Iraq?’”

To which Rubio attempted to employ the debating move of pretending the questioner doesn’t understand his own question, reengaging the battle by saying:

“That’s not the same question. The question I was asked was what you know now.”

Yeah, and Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I Don’t Know is on third. Abbott and Costello did it so much better.

Despite the tediousness of the interview at this point, Wallace made one more attempt to extract an answer:

“But that’s the question I’m asking you. Was it a mistake to go into Iraq?”

Rubio:

“The world is a better place because Saddam Hussein is not there. But I don’t understand the question you’re asking… A president cannot make a decision knowing what someone might know in the future.”

Maybe Rubio was trying to use some Jedi mind trick logic that I’m simply not familiar with, but until he fully answers the question that is asked on the war in Iraq, he too–much like Jeb Bush–will be denied any chance to make real decisions from the Oval Office.

Watch Marco Rubio Fumble The Iraq Question

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.