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So far during this Republican presidential primary season, discussion of George W. Bush and his policies has been almost non-existent.
But at last night's GOP debate, He Who Must Not Be Named -- Bush -- was named by the candidates or moderator nine times.
And his presence over the debate was even bigger: Almost every heated exchange invoked, one way or another, policies, endorsements, or legislation from the Bush era.
No Child Left Behind. That infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." TARP. The 2001 airline bailout. The 2002 steel bailout. Even the 2004 Specter-vs.-Toomey primary.
With Mitt Romney highlighting and criticizing Rick Santorum's Senate record, perhaps it was inevitable that votes in the Bush era would receive a more thorough examination last night than in previous debates.
Still, all of last night's criticism of policies and endorsements from 2001 through 2008 -- some of which weren't all that controversial at the time -- reflects how much more conservative the Republican Party has become since the man who billed himself as the "compassionate conservative" sat in the Oval Office.
Perhaps the clearest example was Bush's signature education policy, No Child Left Behind.
Early in the debate, Romney charged Santorum for voting "to expand the Department of Education."
The former Pennsylvania senator replied, "I had some votes -- look, I think we all have had votes that I wish I wouldn't have voted to -- No Child Left Behind. You're right, it led to education spending. That's why I've said that we need to cut and eliminate No Child Left Behind."
Later, Santorum said he voted for No Child Left Behind because he was taking "one for the team" -- that is, the Bush White House.
"I have to admit I voted for that; it was against the principles I believed in. But, you know, when you're part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team for the leader, and I made a mistake."
Santorum also took "one for the team" when he endorsed Arlen Specter in his 2004 primary fight against Pat Toomey -- a subject that Romney also raised at last night's debate. In fact, it may have well been Romney's most effective dig at Santorum.
"The reason we have 'Obamacare' -- the reason we have 'Obamacare' is because the senator you supported over Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, the pro-choice senator of Pennsylvania that you supported and endorsed in a race over Pat Toomey, he voted for 'Obamacare.'"
What was left unsaid in that exchange: The Bush White House asked Santorum to endorse Specter in that race, because it feared that a Toomey win would give Democrats a chance to win that Pennsylvania Senate seat in a presidential year (when John Kerry ultimately carried the state).
Also in the debate, Romney whacked Santorum for voting for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," which was tucked into legislation Bush signed into law in 2005.
"You voted for the "Bridge to Nowhere," Romney said. "I think these earmarks -- we've had it with them... The earmark process is broken."
But Santorum countered with an earmark that Romney sought for the Olympics.
"He's out there on television ads now unfortunately attacking me for saying that I'm this great earmarker, when he not only asked for earmarks for the Salt Lake Olympics, in the order of tens of millions of dollars," Santorum said of Romney.
That legislation in question? It became law when Bush was president in 2001.
And Santorum used another piece of legislation that became law during Bush's presidency -- the TARP bank bailout -- against Romney.
"[Romney] supported the folks on Wall Street and bailed out Wall Street."
Add up all of these examples, and last night's debate was the first time when George W. Bush's record -- directly or indirectly -- was criticized as much as Barack Obama's.
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Distancing themselves from Bush won't do any good. We the people are not entirely stupid. We know it was the full Republican party that got the country into the mess it is in now, and we're not going to forget it come November.
Dubya = "He Who Must Not Be Named"
Ron Paul = "He Who Must Be Ignored"
LOL! Santorum spent the whole night explaining why he initially supported or voted for something and now opposes it. Ron Paul is right, Santorum is a fake. I see right through him, the guys is disingenuous. It's written all over his face. To all you self rightgeous liberals, Obama promised you the world and gave you nothing, and he will do it again to get re-elected. As far as I'm concerned you're no better than any of the extremist conservatives. For the record, I am an Independent and for Ron Paul, and it doesn't mattter what you say about him, because you don't matter. Peace...
I love watching the republican candidates destroy each other. All the Dems will have to do during the Fall election season is play back the tapes of these debates. Slam dunk!
These 20 debates have proved one thing to most of us. The candidates have very little of substance to offer so they attack each other, they attack Obama, they attack George Bush - has any of them mentioned the others' mothers yet in those attacks?
Well, wasn't that the receipe that Obama used? He attacked McCain as McSame and attacked Bush all over the place. That is typically what all politicians do. Gone are the days of offering solutions. Now politicians simply vie for being the lesser of two evils. They realized a while ago that most of America is too ignorant to comprehend solutions.
President George W Bush.
I still like saying that. I still have his picture up in my office. He was the last President of this Country. I do not agree with everything he done but I do with about 85% of it. He is a good man with a good heart and he loves this country. You can't say that about this one in the White House now.
God Bless the former President.
George W. Bush will go down in history as the worst president this nation has ever had. Everything he touched turned to shyte. He wasn't even elected to his first term. He was placed in office by the SC. I am proud to say that I was wise enough not to have voted for him at all. I wish more could say that......we wouldn't be in the mess we're in today if W had never been placed in the WH. I am ashamed to have had such a man for POTUS, and I'd never hang his picture on my wall.
"I do not agree with everything he done" dummy it's, everything he did, YOU AND BUSHWHACK most have gone to the same school!!! RUSTUPID!
President George W. Bush was handed a loaded deck of cards to play. It is interesting that not only has he been not talked about, the policies and the way we were that led up to 9/11 seem to be areas that are out of bounds rhetoric wise. In fact the total effort so far towards Election 2012, avoids the basics, talking that talk is no indication of the ability to walk that walk. We do not know what the current players will do, if we were to vote on their past records, none of them would get a vote from any citizen that is paying attention. Putin is running again in Russia, FDR made it so another Bush could run for President, but it will not be George W. Bush.
scary thought. bush was incompetent (wars of choice waste of treasury and lives. financial debacle and Katrina fiasco) Obama is incompetent. using old world and old ideas to try and fix problems. should elect a new crop. expand drilling (more jobs) get royalties(reduce deficit) and get our A?? moving.
but no we have tweedle dee and tweedle dum and I not talking about the Republicantsand Demedonts. the american public has lost the respective for the republic and we have reaped the whirlwind of the greatest generation.
I THINK THIS IS GREAT!
What we are now seeing in the Republican party is a the DIRECT result of Tea-Party influence. Every time
a Republican is not 'conservative' enough they make sure he/she is voted out of office and then they look
someone like Santorum replace them. Never quite realizing that the reason they are failing is because of
the constant and steady drift towards extremism.
At this point I do not really see alot of difference between the Republicans and the Taliban. They both stir
their general populations with lies about 'infidels' They both attempt to manipulate the media so their
transparent actions are covered up. They both attempt to use / abuse Religion to get the uneducated masses that they have created, act AGAINST their best self interests. They both pretty much say "Cut your nose off so that you can spite your face, but you are better off than . Just like here in the good ole USA their psychological Gestalt has taken a HUGE blow. In the middle East the so called Arabic Spring and in the United States the Election of President Obama, a BLACK man, has thrown both Gestalts in a state of desperation. They are both literally feel as if the fabric of their societies are falling apart. Of course we know this is not true, the world is just changing and leaving the old, infirm, and those unable to adjust, behind in a mess of their own making.
Yea and verily I see A LOT of similarities between the Rhetoric of a Santorum and the rhetoric of a Bin Laden. It's amazing more people are not against this OBVIOUS RACE baiting, SELF RIGHTEOUS, hypocritical, person. Let's not loose sight of the fact that even Jesus was a radical, he was the ULTIMATE radical. In today's Republican party I bet even Jesus would be thrown out as 'to radical'
Just a few controversial comments for Thursday. Have at it!
Obama / Biden 2012
Are you the same Dr. Who that used to despise Obama? If so, what happened? Good post
It is very hard, dare I say all but IMPOSSIBLE, to despise President Obama in light of the current crop of nominees on the Republican ticket.
In addition to that I never have DESPISED President Obama I think he has done an EXCELLENT job considering all the unreasoning hatred he has had to deal with. In spite of facing the most dire circumstances of any President PAST or PRESENT, against all odds he has succeeded in pulling this country SOMEWHAT out of the quagmire.
Perhaps you are referring to one of my previous reincarnations ........
Obama / Biden 2012
These republican candiidates have done nothing for this country and if elected, will keep doing nothing for this country. They are all full of SH&*. Can't believe how full of it they are...
Even a retarded mosquito could name a million things bush did wrong. One that might be overlooked, is he single handedly brought the country down. Now before you get your panties in a bind, think about it, and follow the logic here. He pissed off most americans, so much so, that most voted for odumbo. And odumbo finished sinking america. Without the dumb traitor bush, odumbo would never have made it into office. You thought 8 years with bush was bad, AND IT WAS, ......well the legacy he left america, ODUMBO,......is even worse. the bush & odumbo show killed america. bye bye america. was nice knowing you,...too bad two buffoons screwed everything up.
"odumbo" Your credibility ended right there.
And that's a BAD thing in the eyes of the republicans. They couldn't make their agenda clearer if they tried - no education, no health care for anyone, especially women.
and again thats my point it is a gingrich idea but his ideas on forgein policy suck(old cold warrior) so discard those. do as our governor is trying to do in Louisiana and reform education. need to reform many things and get rid of the overseas expense both bases and aid. and I will tell you now Iran is surrounded by enemies so what Romney and Santorum is bull hockey. I vote against Obama because he is a failure at the deficit level and the economic level.
Prez Obama has shown that he has very little regard for civil liberties.
Only this field could make GW Bush look A) intelligent; and B) Presidential.
A "present" vote is a way of indicating dissatisfaction with the premise, wording, or Constitutionality of a bill.
Thanks for the info if true..Always glad to learn something new even as an old dog..I kinda like the idea of letting the constituent base know by my vote that I have actually read and evaluated a bill and think it stinks and does not even belong on the table..
Thanks again Heartlight3..
A very simple philosphy that I have to save America. It might even make a good bumper sticker. "Whatever conservatives want, do the opposite".
That ties right in with conservatives "we'll do the opposite of whatever you do", even when it includes implementing their own ideas, like mandates, contraception, or anything else Obama copied from Republican ideas.
For the past 3 years Republicans have been complaining that liberals blamed Bush for everything, including all of the things that the current candidates are trying to distance themselves from. It is ironic that Republicans re-write history to exclude any mention of their involvement in what they are now decrying as a "mess". And it is laughable that they do so knowing full well that they've put down liberals for pointing out what a mess it was for the past 3 years, saying that people shouldn't blame Bush!
scotty,
What the phuck did you just say??
I think Bush meant well but he was just a wanna-be democrat.
well DUBYA said history would judge him and the verdict came in via the Republican debate:FAILURE!
President Obama's record of accomplishments, all with specific citations. Only if you dare.
http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/
...thats okay, we are living through obamas failures, no need to relive them.
The Republicans know that mentioning GWBush is the kiss of death even though they still espouse his platform. Nothing new from the GOP but don't mention the Bush name or people will start to remember the "Bush Reign of Ruin" and all that tax stuff and the economy crashing and the unwanted wars and all that deregulation stuff and the war on minorities and especially women, but who's counting anyway?
Here's a statistic for you under Reagan 32 million people did not pay federal income taxes, and under Obama it is 152 million. That's 49.5% of Americans don't pay Federal income taxes tell me we don't live in a socialist country.This will be in the news shortly.
Just goes to show how bad Dubya screwed up our country...no?
You do realize that Mr. Obama has been president for 3 years and was in Congress for 3 years before that. Which, if you do the math (now try to follow along here) means that you are blaming Mr. Obama's 6 years for 30+ years of tax policy. And you do realize that the reason so many Americans are not paying taxes is because BOTH parties decided that Ronald Reagan Supply Side economics was the next best thing since sliced white bread. And you do realize that one of the main reasons so many Americans are not paying taxes is that with the exception of the top 5% in America, ALL OTHER INCOME LEVELS have either stayed stagnant or lost real wages since 1980.
Now you want to back up your inane, totally biased, uninformed and basically ignorant statement? And for the record, just because it is true, critical thinking skills are needed to find out not only WHY it is true, but also WHY the wealthy LOVE the current tax code.
ProgressiveforAmerica I could give a @!$%# what your political views are and your asinine statement. My point is that we live in a socialist country and you are telling me 49.5 % can not pay at lease a 1.00.
Hey Mtex. Are you still angry at your mom? Let it go, dude...
Dubya = "He Who Must Not Be Named"
Ron Paul = "He Who Must Be Ignored"
Dionysus = "He who is full of @!$%#"
The biggest difference I see is that George Bush managed to get elected twice. I've yet to see a significant threat to President Obama amongst these mud slingers!