Bushes and Clintons

[babylonsister]

Bushes and Clintons

by Jonathan Singer, Wed Apr 28, 2010 at 04:21:15 PM EDT


Today's Politico has a piece on the presidential aspirations of Jeb Bush, who some say would be a leading contender were it not for his last name (leaving aside, of course, whether he would have ever been Governor of Florida in the first place had it not been for his last name). But one part of the article particularly stood out to me:

Alex Castellanos, a longtime GOP consultant who worked on Bush’s gubernatorial campaigns and is still in touch with his old client, argued that the family brand could be rehabilitated for Jeb just as it was for Hillary Clinton after her husband’s presidency.

I'm not at all sure what Castellanos is talking about. In what way was the Clinton brand "rehabilitated" by Hillary Clinton? In what way was it in need of rehabilitation?

Look through the polling. I have. Every single poll during the waning days of the Clinton administration found the 42nd President to be wildly popular. Just how popular? A 66 percent approval rating in the final NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of the Clinton presidency. A 66 percent approval rating in the final Gallup poll. A 64 percent approval rating in the final CNN/Time poll. A 61 percent approval rating in the final Pew poll. A 68 percent approval rating in the final CBS poll. A 62 percent approval rating in the final Fox News poll. These were numbers requiring "rehabilitat{ion}"?

more...

http://mydd.com/2010/4/28/bushes-and-clintons

[political_Dem]

1. It's not surprising that the Bushes and Clintons are held in the same light.

They've been intertwined politically as of late.

However, I tend to think that too many people in the world have felt that the Bushes have done nothing but the worst nationally and internationally. One would have to be living under a rock to vote for Jeb Bush--especially with what happened during the 2000 election.

I wonder if Katherine Harris will be involved somehow, such as she was when propping up one Bush brother?

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. "Propping up"?

Is that what they're calling it these days?

[political_Dem]

3. Well, I tried to be polite, lol.

[obxhead]

4. The 2000 election taught us that you don't need the votes

to get into office, only the voting machines, their controllers and a little MSM support. The idea of ol' Jeb getting in are not all that far fetched.

[political_Dem]

5. That's fair. And I think that's the only way Jeb would get into office.

It wouldn't be because people actually liked him or his family.

[EnlightenedOne]

6. I hope the Aliens have landed by then

and have taken me far, far, away.

[karynnj]

7. You need to leave the world of reality and go to the RW meme world

In their view, Clinton was disgraced when he left office. Bush entered "bringing decency back to the White House, as only a man, who was a mean drunk until he was 40. Their image then was the pardons (many of which genuinely had problems), Monica, stealing WH furniture (I didn't understand the accusation then and I don't now) - and don't forget the trashing of the WH - that didn't occur.

Their story then is that Hillary by working hard and reaching out to Republicans became the inevitable candidate.

So, in their view, discredited and then reborn.

Reality is in the numbers sited.

So, now on to Bush - Bush is really truly unambiguously disgraced and disliked. You know it is bad when the far right has started to call him a liberal (!)

But, equating the "befores" suggests that Jebb Bush could, like Hillary, be the Bushes' comeback. Now, just as there was a major problem with equating the "befores", they ignore that it was likely the past that moved a substantial portion of people to support Obama to avoid bringing back the past and Hillary lost. As their past was far worse, where is this analogy taking them.