Except for Portman. He did a good job running OMB, and left with a fair amount of respect on both sides of the aisle. Very nearly the only Bush appointee to do that.

Many things are different in RepublicanWorld. The sky, for example, is pink, even at midday, ane both moons are retrograde.

What on earth leads Portman to think he can parlay work as Bush's budget and trade guy into a Senate seat in Ohio?

I would guess the same combination of fatuous arrogance and intentional disregard for reality that characterizes so many modern Republicans.

Look, when overt opposition to evolution is a winning political strategy, a lot of other disconnected, loopy ideas start to look plausible.

The name Michelle Bachman does come to mind. She won, you know, after becoming a national embarrassment to her district.

"What on earth leads Portman to think he can parlay work as Bush's budget and trade guy into a Senate seat in Ohio?"

Let's see...Portman has a strong base in southern Ohio...Two years is a long time to (a) hold on to resentment about Bush, (b) Portman to establish his own message, (c) place space between Portman and his Bush years, (d) some major malfunction occurs on the Dem side, blame for a Depression being placed on the Dems, etc., and (e) as a former Bushie, Portman will probably have plenty of cash on hand to counter-program negative perceptions.

Don't kid yourselves; Ohio is still a swing state.

I sometimes get the sense that the Republican establishment may not fully appreciate how unpopular George W. Bush is, and why being closely associated with him is not a recipe for career advancement.

From talking to true believers, they still think that Bush was a good President because he "kept us safe" and "lowered our taxes." If you think that those two elements constitute a successful Presidency, you are never going to grasp how unpopular Bush in the first place. Fred Barnes' latest screed is an example of this.

Maybe he can leg wrestle Joe the Plumber for the Republican nomination--I hear he's interested in the job as well.

Coming from the Northeastern Ohio area...I can predict Portman's success. I live in a county that Obama took. Many of my peers were upset by Bush, and especially McCain. McCain actually came to my college campus during the campaign, and one professor said McCain was killing his vibe. Given the fact that Portman is not known up in the northern parts, and that the main fact people will remember him by is being a Bushie...well...a snowball would have a better chance in Hell.

I'm sure his role negotiating free trade policies will be extremely popular in Ohio, especially as the recession pushes unemployment up towards 10%.

Likewise, I'm sure the upcoming fight over employee free choice will remind people in Ohio how awful it was when union representation in their state was strong, and how they suffered with good healthcare, a pension, and wages you could raise a family on.

Still, anything can happen.

I guess two years is a long time in politics, but still, it'll take a lot longer than that for the Bush stink to wear off.

No one who worked closely with this president saw their reputations enhanced by their service.

If he thinks he can be rehabilitated faster than Colin Powell, good luck.

After Michelle Bachmann revealed her lunacy on Chris Matthews, her DFL opponent received over a $million from around the nation, and the race drew to a draw. Hardcore MN 6th district conservatives reacted to both the weakness of her DFL opponent and the appearance of outside interference in their election.

She may be a lunatic, but she's their lunatic.

The Queen of America, Sarah Palin, will clear the decks for her preferred candidate: Joe the Plumber, setting the stage for the historic Palin/Plumber campaign of 2012.

Portman's been talked about for statewide office for some time, and he's apparently a smart guy, as far as orthodox Republicans go. As bazilgriff says, he's reasonably well-respected in spite of his time in the Bush white house. He's popular in the southwest. And two years is a long time.

I'm not going to say he's the favorite to win the seat, but I do think it's deeply unwise to write him off already, two years out.

It's depressing that people even consider republicans a viable party in American politics after all their ideas have been tried and failed miserably and they have absolutely proven they have no integrity and cannot manage government. De-Nazifying and De-Republicanizing are equal to the same thing. They just don't believe in democracy and will destroy it at every opportunity.
It's the Bush brat's mentality.