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Bill Clinton left the White House in January 2001, and in the 2004 race, Democratic candidates were tripping over each other to connect themselves to the nation’s 42nd president. I remember one September 2003 debate in which literally every Dem running for the party’s nomination said they’re the rightful heir to the Clinton legacy.
Al Sharpton, after a while, apparently couldn’t take it anymore. “I know that within the next hour we’ll say that Bill Clinton walked on water,” he joked.
George W. Bush, meanwhile, left the White House in January 2009, and in the 2012 race, Republican candidates prefer to pretend the nation’s 43rd president doesn’t exist.
While the candidates routinely lionize Ronald Reagan and blame President Barack Obama for the nation’s economic woes, none has been eager to embrace the Bush legacy of gaping budget deficits, two wars and record low approval ratings —- or blame him for the country’s troubles either.
“Republicans talk a lot about losing their way during the last decade, and when they do they’re talking about the Bush years,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont-McKenna College. “For Republicans, the Bush administration has become the ‘yadda yadda yadda’ period of American history.”
The eight-year Bush presidency has merited no more than a fleeting reference in televised debates and interviews…. The former president himself has been all but invisible since leaving office in 2009 with a Gallup approval rating of just 34 percent. […]
In a presidential contest dominated by concerns over the weak economy, government spending and the $15 trillion federal debt, the Republican candidates have been loath to acknowledge the extent to which Bush administration policies contributed to those problems.
This isn’t surprising, of course. I don’t imagine many would-be GOP presidents were eager to bring up Hoover in the 1936 election, either.
But the challenge for Democrats is to not let this stand. Not only is Bush responsible for nearly all of the messes Obama is trying to clean up, but nearly all of the Republican candidates are eager to bring return to Bush-era policies — only this time, they’ll be even more right wing.
It would seem, then, that the tack for Obama’s re-election campaign is pretty obvious: “A vote for Romney is a vote for the Bush policies that got us into this mess in the first place. Let’s not go backwards.”
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sick-n-effn-tired. on January 03, 2012 11:32 AM:
Oh and if we only had journalists in this country.
Explain to me ____________ Republican candidate , exactly how are your policies different from the previous Republican administration and why are you expecting a result.
(this assuming they actually have a policy instead of memorized talking points)
kevo on January 03, 2012 11:34 AM:
The Democrats from the national office to the smallest congressional and state district need to force the Republican candidates to talk continually about how those Bush years went, and just what they did for our nation and its people!
Think they have the spine?
The media needs to ask the ultimate question of relevance:
Did the Paulson Treasury and the Bush Administration promote economic Ponzi schemes to hide the cost of two foreign wars?
Think the question will be asked?
The voters need not be fooled by emotional rhetoric, and allow it to set the tone of the fall campaign!
Think that can be done?
Well, here we are! Wish you were here! -Kevo
stormskies on January 03, 2012 11:38 AM:
But the challenge for Democrats is to not let this stand. Not only is Bush responsible for nearly all of the messes Obama is trying to clean up, but nearly all of the Republican candidates are eager to bring return to Bush-era policies — only this time, they’ll be even more right wing.
***************
and like sick-n-effn-tired said not one corporate media type ever brings this up ..not one. The Repiglicans want to do exactly the same as Bush, and even worse. And not only does the corporate media not point this out but the fact that almost half of our fellow citizens are ready to elect one of these buffoons running for President who will try to recreate the very policies that led to the economic collapse created by Bush and the Repiglicans in the first place.
What a fucking testimony not only to the corruption of the corporate media, but the abject cretinism of a vast amount of our fellow citizens.
walt on January 03, 2012 11:39 AM:
Obama Derangement Syndrome is really a function of the right's rage that Bush was so widely despised. In retrospect, they conveniently admit that Bush was a Big Government conservative, etc. But if he got the lyrics to their ideology wrong, Bush certainly was pitch-perfect in the music of cultural resentment, white male privilege, and authoritarianism. Make no mistake: for the GOP base, George W Bush was the man. They loved the guy too much for their own good, so it hurts to see the other side's guy get away with stuff. They see it as their job to hate him extravagantly, if only to even the score.
Bush was Mr Hot to Obama's Mr Cool, country-western music to Obama's jazz. I don't know how much factual evidence that the public can tolerate, but I'm pretty sure Obama is perceived as the more likeable president.
Jerry Elsea on January 03, 2012 11:45 AM:
The news media happily go along with Bush-era amnesia. Small wonder: Cheerleading for the disastrous Iraq War should have left their credibility shredded beyond repair.
Granted, Democrats must not let the silence stand, but much of the saber-rattling in 2002 and 2003 came from their camp.
Next up: Iran and all the political points to be scored for urging an attack there. (See Rick Santorum, "Meet the Press," Jan. 1, 2012.)
zandru on January 03, 2012 11:45 AM:
"The former president himself has been all but invisible since leaving office"
Apparently, he and Laura are doing those huge stadium-sized "motivational" seminars, with a horde of other bidness celebutards - something like 10-15 "great men", and all for $1.99 admission!
SYSPROG on January 03, 2012 11:50 AM:
I can't BELIEVE I am defending the MEDIA (sort of) but Romney etal won't answer the questions they are ASKED. They prefer to go with their script. If they are 'pressed' they walk away or just keep talking. THEN they go on FAUX to 'explain' themselves. OK then. The MSM knows the score and the other networks should distinguish themselves by 'educating' the REST of the public. We KNOW that Fox routinely misleads their viewers...OK LIES to their viewers soABC it is TIME for CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS to tell the country what is REALLY happening. Fox didn't happen in a vacuum. The MSM allowed them to grow by running after them rather than standing up to them. Freedom of the Press? Take it BACK.
Al on January 03, 2012 11:50 AM:
Republicans don't dwell in the past. They look to the future.
Only democrats look to past leaders, because present ones are so mediocer.
leo from Chicago on January 03, 2012 11:54 AM:
Not that this lessens how horrible a Prez Bush was, but to be fair, Clinton was a persona non-grata during the 2000 race. I mean, I don't recall too many Gore-Clinton photo opps during that one.
c u n d gulag on January 03, 2012 11:56 AM:
In some respects, you really can't blame them.
After all, B-U-S-H is a four-letter word.
T2 on January 03, 2012 11:57 AM:
oh Al.......Republican's don't dwell in their past because it is littered with spectacular failures...the crooked Richard Nixon, the senile Reagan, the out of touch Old Man Bush and the Lie Us into a War Young Bush. It's easy to see why GOPers are continually revising their history.....they have to.
citizen_pain on January 03, 2012 12:03 PM:
The ads write themselves:
"A vote for Romney/Gingrich/whomever is a vote for Bu$h style republicanism"
Queue some outstanding Bu$h failures and the aforementioned candidates unflinching approval of the policies that led to said failures.
"America can't afford to go back to the Bu$h administration policies, and that's exactly where 'candidate' will take us".
Pretty simple.
Anonymous on January 03, 2012 12:28 PM:
check out the alums of the first W who are giving advice to the second W and his ilk:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-18/bush-era-iraq-hawks-counsel-republican-presidential-hopefuls.html
It's not just the candidate we will be getting but ALL of the first W baggage, too.
jpeckjr on January 03, 2012 12:31 PM:
"The former president himself has been all but invisible since leaving office."
And I thank the dieties every day for this blessing.
eserwe on January 03, 2012 12:56 PM:
And in one sentence you have the reason why Jeb ain't gonna be the white knight at a brokered convention.
maryQ on January 03, 2012 1:08 PM:
Here's a few slogans:
Mitt Romeny's America-just like Bush's compassionate conservatism, without the compassion
Or
Romeny's foreign policy would be a lot like Bush's, but without the reflection, humility or moderation.
or
Imagine the Bush economy if he had started out with a deficit rather than a surplus. Ladies and Gentleman, I bring you Mitt Romney.....
MNRD on January 03, 2012 2:13 PM:
Crucial in this line of attack is the fact that Romney has fully embraced Bush/Cheney neo-conservatism - which a substantial part of the Republican base (Paul's supporters) has repudiated. Romney has a well-established reputation as a shape-shifting fraud. And Romney's entire proposed governing platform is fundamentally fraudulent: He wants to squander the country's fortune on grandiose neo-conservative military adventures - and at the same time, he refuses to raise any new revenue, and he claims to be a "fiscal conservative" concerning deficit reduction! At least Bush/Cheney took the position that "deficits don't matter. The bottom line: Romney is far less honest and authentic than Bush, and look at how that one worked out.
jjm on January 03, 2012 3:20 PM:
Romney has a known war criminal as a foreign policy advisor.
He is a total fraud.
You know, I watched Big Love (written by ex-Mormons -- the entire series) and came away with the impression that Mormons are exceptionally adept at, and very willing to lie about everything -- if done to maintain what they consider their absolute superiority of belief, lifestyle, et al.
Their smug superiority and absolute arrogance supports the proclivity to lie, and it goes well beyond the limits of life into the grave. They keep a Book of the Dead and for quite a while they engaged in "converting" dead Jews to Christianity (for 'their own good') --until Jews sued them to stop it. If you spring from a weird mindset like that, a minor crime like lying is deemed insignificant.
Still, I hoped I was wrong about Mormons being liars.
But Romney does not, unfortunately, dispel this impression; he reinforces it.