The American Debate: He damaged party in two fundamental ways

[struggle4progress]

By Dick Polman
Inquirer National Political Columnist

... If that sounds too harsh, perhaps Tom Davis, a former House GOP leader, will strike you as more diplomatic. Referring to Bush last spring, Davis said: "He's just killed the Republican brand ... The Republican brand is in the trash can ... If we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf" ...

Just the other day, conservative activist and Reagan biographer Craig Shirley said he and his brethren were "disgusted" with Bush's "betrayal of Reaganism." He noted that 20 percent of all self-identified conservatives voted for Barack Obama, and he warned that "it will take some time - possibly as long as it took the GOP to throw off the millstone of Herbert Hoover - before the GOP can right itself" ...

Why Bush lost the center is no mystery. The reasons include his mendacious salesmanship and poor execution of the Iraq war; the erosion of America's image abroad; his inept response to Katrina; the .. budget deficits; his elevation of incompetent party hacks to crucial government posts; his opposition to embryonic-stem-cell research; his notorious attempt, in cahoots with the Republican Congress and the religious right, to keep Terri Schiavo alive in defiance of state court rulings and the wishes of her family ...

I doubt that Republicans are angry to the point of throwing shoes. But they probably were not amused at Bush's huffy answer to a question during an ABC News interview that was part of his legacy tour. When it was pointed out that Saddam Hussein had not conspired with al-Qaeda, and that al-Qaeda had not been a presence in Iraq until we invaded, Bush fired back: "So what?" ...

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20090111_The_American_Debate__He_damaged_party_in_two_fundamental_ways.html

[Hekate]

1. This is a delicious sentiment. I hope the R party is busted back to the Stone Age,to borrow a phrase

Bush and the cronies he fronted for have brought us to ruin -- our economy, our Constitutional form of government, the civil service that served us so well for over 200 years -- and all I can do is wish them the same in abundance.

The nicest part of this article is the way in which it confirms that the majority of the American people are not idiots, and that eventually we see what's in front of our eyes.

Hekate

[Lasher]

2. Familiar denial bullshit.

Junior didn't discredit the Republican brand. He is the brand. "Betrayal of Reaganism." Puh leeeze. Junior is Saint Ronnie on steroids. Tax cuts for rich people at everyone else's expense. Record deficits. Hates social programs. Divisive. Warmonger. Unaccountable. Liar. Idiot.

Now it's almost like Republicans were innocent victims while somebody else got him elected as president twice.

[struggle4progress]

3. Yep. The Republicans rode along happily with the Bush-Cheney gang, as it

murdered and pillaged and terrorized -- and now, when nobody can any longer deny the trail of bodies and wreckage, the whole hoard dismounts, rubbing its eyes and loudly proclaiming that they just can't believe Bush and Cheney were such outlaws

[Brentwood]

5. I couldn't agree with you more - Well said Lasher

It is so obvious that the pub's are jumping ship. It is like a firing squad in a circle firing at each other, exclaiming they are not to blame.

[BR_Parkway]

4. Yes, it was all Bush & Cheney - not a single other Republican person

or Republican idea got us where we are right now.

I'm sick of the GOP attempt to spin this off on the figurehead to prop up their own failed brand (again).