mark: with all do respect to john bolton's decision not to run for president -- >> ♪ how am i supposed to live without you now that i've been loving you so long ♪ mark: i like michael bolton. it's a lot of the stuff that was on the show last night, plus the simpsons. once again jeb bush. for the fourth day in a row, he gave an answer about the invasion of iraq. as they think any bug port

sometimes, -- as they say in kitty love for sometimes, maybe the fourth time is a charm. jeb bush: knowing now what we know, what would you have done i would not have gone into iraq. that is not to say that the world is not acutely safer. that is not to say that it created a stir -- that it did not create a surge of instability in iraq. and that is not to say that those who served in iraq should not have. they did serve there honorably. what is the role going forward? mark: does that answer the fourth one -- does that answer, the fourth one put to rest this flap for jeb bush? john: no, no. first let's pause for a moment on the horrific nature of the

performance there. the chief business --chippiness at the beginning and not handling it in a cool, calm collected way. and the second thing about the question of was the war worth it, he says, yes. he said he would have gone in if he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction and in the end he was arguing that the war was worth it. that is not the winning place to be when it comes to the iraq war. mark: on the one hand, he has put this behind him in a way, which is to say that people will stop asking about it. on the other hand, he has unsettled donors and senior party officials and republican strategist who have looked at this and said he is rusty, not prepared, and cannot handle the family dynamic and his staff is not serving him well. on the other hand, he is learning this early.

he is a smart guy. i think they need to prepare him better than they did this week. john: this was a be candidate this week, not the front runner. this is not someone who could beat hillary clinton in terms of level of preparation or response. mark: readiness. john: oregon, the quality of that answer. -- or again, the quality of that answer. i would not say the guy was ready for the big stage in the way he handled that answer. mark: i have been impressed with him since december when he started flirting with running how he has been then like an kept his cool. -- has been zen-like an kept his cool. the tone of that thing, he clearly lost his syntax and it was all garbled.

if he is going to be on the wrong side of public opinion, it is the some people of some -- the position of some people in his party. john: it is not the way to win the electorate on election day. mark: i'm not saying this will be our league tomorrow, but it might be. john: john bolton is not running for president, no passing go, no collecting $200. here is my question. what does this mean for 2016? mark: it means to me that it opens up the opportunity for people like lindsey graham marco rubio, and people like rand paul. it opens the lane for them to become in the debate, both formal and informal committee big, dominant -- and informal a big, dominant voice in the race for national security. john: he would have been the

furthest right foreign policy candidate. he would have basically been arguing that we need another neocon in the white house in order to stave off the worldwide crises that we are facing around the world. it certainly opens up the far right flank on that argument and as you say, some unlike lindsey graham will be a more singular voice for that point of view without john bolton in the race and he would have been otherwise. mark: he also does bring rigor on these issues. and he brings -- he would have elevated the discussion. i will say, though it means other people may not end up running. the field might be smaller. john: on -- if i am anyone of the governors that does not have a lot of foreign-policy expertise, i'm glad he's not the race. he knows more about national security and these hot spots around the world than scott walker does, then marco rubio does then rand paul does, th

an bobby jindal does. mark: i think there will be people looking to get his support. he has built up something of a following and is a good foreign-policy advisor. john: it was the best of times and the worst of times for everyone who has a eight in the clinton cash chronicles. -- who has a stake in the clinton cash chronicles. harper connell -- harpercollins had it wrong when it came to pass stuff. he made the clinton foundation, including when he interviewed the author on george's show sunday this week. who got a bigger scout, the fans of clinton cash, or the critics? john: we have both known george stephanopoulos many times and have been on his show.

we may very well be on his show in the future. there is no doubt in my mind that the clinton cash for fans -- the clinton cash fans had a better day today. we would have heard all day long that the book had to be amended, and that it has been overshadowed by republicans braying for abc's collective head. they like nothing better than to attack the media. that is a good political position. they were on offense when they should have been on defense. mark: newspaper articles make errors and magazine articles. the errors in the book you should not just brush them away and say they are nothing, but they are not fundamentally undermining the thesis in the book. there is our problem. the problem with george stephanopoulos it's a problem with george and a problem for abc. i don't think it plays into the clintons, in terms of whether it is utter or worse for hillary.

-- better or worse for hillary. john: the democrats are not going to be attacking her. they just had a better day because they were able to get traction on that issue. she is in new york doing a bunch of on raising. the first of three big events. that has now been kind of overshadowed. we will talk to our hunt later on in the show about hillary and her fundraising operation stop -- talk to al hunt later on in the show about hillary and her fundraising operation. mark: one amazing thing was that george's name was on a publicly disclosed website for the foundation. what is that for the clintons is that maybe everyone will realize they need to go back and read the list more carefully. john: invitation to flashbacking no doubt about it. the simpsons, except today it is not. harry shearer, the voice of mr. burns, net flanders, principal

skinner, and other countless characters is said to be walking away from the show. the show's number one tweeted that the show is "still trying to work things out with shearer." we were astonished about the number of political voices he has done on the show. here is one example. greg -- >> we must be vigilant. john: mark, you had reagan, bush 41 clinton, and shearer has also done nixon gore adeline stephenson -- andadlai stephenson. how big a blow to the show would it be if harry shearer does say

sayonara? mark: the last of the adeline stephenson ae -- adlauii stevenson voice alone. they have to work this out for the good of the universe. john: i cannot help but think it would mean the end of those characters. you don't want someone else doing montgomery burns's voice. mark: did you ever hear the second guys -- the second guy who did kermit? nails on a chalkboard. john: yes and i'm begging you, all of you guys must find a way. mark: who was in love with the original steamboat willie? john: coming up, what is jeb bush thinking? we will be right back. ♪

john: it's getting hot in the republican party and not just because of those presidential announcements. our man might enter is in phoenix right now. mike, you were out on the trail with jeb bush when he made his comments today on the fourth consecutive day in a row when he was trying to answer the questions about the iraq war. set the scene for us. mike: this was supposed to be a standard, campaign style in bed, a local brewery in tempe, arizona. it was supposed to be a platform for jeb bush to talk about innovation, regulation, but the iraq question was actually literally hanging over him today. he came out of his tour, spoke to a crowd of about 100 chamber of commerce type folks.

there was a tv of in the corner with a view on. you could not hear the sound, but they were talking on "the view" about his answer on iraq. he goes through the normal 10 minutes some -- stop speech. and he says before i go, i want to add one more thing and gives his explanation full survey was a little abrupt and awkward. the crowd was sort of giving each other glances as he walked through his explanation. mark: we have been talking to the bush folks trying to figure out why he has been giving this series of answers this week. what do you know about where he arrived at today's answer after the previous false starts? mike: he got worn down on this. and you have -- as you have been talking about and as i wrote

about on bloomberg.com, this is a hard issue for him broadly the family. it's twofold. he doesn't want to appear disloyal, and he doesn't want to open up a rabbit hole of being compared to his brother on every issue. those are fair to a degree, but i also wonder whether or not he is a little bit more sensitive to appearing disloyal to his brother than even his brother is. john: it seems to me, listening to answer, and i'm fascinated to hear that he was not answering a question here. he introduced this topic, right? and he gave that little speech that he gave. it seems to me like he was trying to put a ribbon around it and take everything of the last four days and put it to rest. does the bush team think this is now over #-- now over? michael and they think it is over for now and i think it's fair to say -- mike: they think

it is over for now, and i think it's there to a it will come back up with his rivals within the republican presidential field and debate, and we clearly have an area where, as you were talking about before, jeb bush's claim to the republican crown is that he is the leader with the most experience and that he has the record and will not be flip-flopping on issues. this is an issue where he can be pushed off the message. john: thank you. we will talk to you soon. let's go down to the washington bureau and get albert reinhold in on this. al mike was just talking about why jeff bush is struggling so much with this question. why do you think he is struggling so much? al: i agree with what you said before, that he is rusty and

fumbling, but i think it is much deeper. that is, he basically believes in his brother's national security record. i think if you look at the advisers that he signed on, they are w's advisers. he started out as "i am my own man," but not a single policy difference. i think his dad's policy record looks better and better all the time, but most people think that george bush junior's was a colossal disaster. mark: in the long arc of jeb bush's quest to be president, what is the significance of what happened this week on iraq? al: please basically has the foreign-policy views of his brother and he cannot differentiate substantively, not just saying i'm my own man, then

i think that is a far greater problem than fumbling. mark: will he get to be -- is it a problem for getting the nomination in general? al: i think it is. the democrats were salivating but it was not just the donor class that you cited earlier but the other candidates this is an opportunity to go after him. who other than dick cheney says is we knew what we know now we would go in and justify it? it is hard to make the case when you see the total debacle that iraq has become. mark: and another thing that hurts him is that every republican in the race feels that their path is -- john: and another thing that hurt him is that ever public in the race feels that their path is stronger if they can get him out. and they have seen the issues

with common core and the week poll numbers in iowa. he looks like a paper tiger to a lot of these guys. the thing to pylon is a -- the instinct to pile on is irresistible. it is one of the best things about being a pseudo-front runner. mark: the bush campaign, do you think they are happy to leave it where they left it today, or using they will look for a -- an opportunity to give a better answer than that? al: i don't know, but i suspect that they will try to stay with this issue as long as they possibly can. they probably will not be able to. john: stay with us, because after the break we will talk about the only thing that really matters in the political world that is, money. ♪

mark: gotham city is currently

gripped by a superstorm named hillary. she has been fundraising throughout the city. al hunt is back with us. while we were talking about george -- jeb bush, i was looking at various tweets about hillary today. she met with him super pac -- met with some super pacs and she is very aware and focus on fundraising. how do you think she is positioned to fund raise under these unique conditions not an incumbent, but basically alone for the money? very worried about republican money, both now and next year. al: i think she is positioned well to get the money. she is almost certainly the nominee. democrats don't want republicans to take over. she will not have to compete with a lot of other democrats for that money. she will raise a lot of money. she came out of the gate as a campaign finance reformer and

she and her people will say, these are the rules we've got to play by, but it will raise questions of authenticity. bernie sanders, jim webb, martin o'malley will say she is the fat cat, the candidate of wall street. they have to say that, because they cannot be. i think it will resonate with some of the primary voters. john: as recent as 2012 as super pac tried to raise money they found that that a lot of rich democrats did not want to get into that. they did not want to get into negative advertising. do you think that will be a problem this time around, or will donors say, screw it, and we are all in and we have to win? al: i think it will be closer to the latter. they will say, the other side is

tough and going after us and we've got to fight back. whether or not they can raise the same kind of money that jeb bush can raise may be questionable. but hillary incorporated, her campaign or all of the affiliated groups, i don't think they will have any money problems. mark: anyone who donates to the clintons will get scrutiny. do you think that will determine things that they don't want to be part of clinton incorporated? al: i'm sure that counts in some part but between hollywood and trial lawyers and staunch democratic rich people there is enough money to go around certainly for a primary season. she will dwarf everybody else. and by the time you get to a one-on-one against the republicans, i doubt there will be that same hesitation. mark: in the psychodrama and

practical relations between the clintons, it is now being said by her folks and by the clintons that bill clinton will not raise money for her. do you see the logic in him not being a fundraiser at private events this year? al: i think that becomes immersed in what you just asked about, the foundation and all of those conservations -- controversies. i would not be surprised if they altered that a little bit as the season proceeds. as we know, bubba can do anything. whether it is give a speech for her or enlist political support or raise money. john: we talked yesterday on the show about your column, about hillary clinton and trade, and you said she could not continue to waffle. she has waffled comfortably so far on that question. i think part of the reason is that they want to make sure that no one can get any oxygen on her

left. do you see the political logic of that? you see that, but you think that trumps what we all suspect, that she is a free trader at her heart? al: as you know, you could just see the conference calls and the debates. almost every single positive that policy advisor she has says to be for the tpp. it's better than nafta and it's better for asia. i would guess that almost every political advisor has said to stay away from this and if anything, oppose it, because it will help bernie sanders run against you. she came out with a position today. she is for putting harriet tubman on the $20 bill. i don't think that will get rid of her non-position on trade. john: we appreciate it. we will be right back with one of the bolton's. mark: i wonder which one. ♪

john: before we say good night

here is a little something to remember john bolton by. mark: i you a fan of the movie diner? john: i don't know the movie. and i don't know taylor swift songs either. mark: see you tomorrow. sayonara. ♪

alix: we are moments away from the close of the market day. i alix steel. [closing bell] another record day for the s&p, settling out at 2120 stop did not hit the intraday high of 2125, but we are now at a record high for the s&p. we also have a digit rally that held on