[RockinRight]

No, we all did.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1959452/posts

[Brilliant]

Very nearly. Of course, his chief opponent in 2000 was McCain, and he would most definitely have destroyed it completely.

[Huck]

Don’t sell the Republican Congress short, Peggy.

[Thunder Pig]

I think it may be a nation-wide thing.

The local GOP chieftains here seem pretty intent on destroying the party, and cozying up to the lefties and pauleroids as much as possible...and most of the rank and file don’t seem to care.

[Agent Smith]

Peggy is exactly correct.

Bush43 makes John McCain look like Ronald Reagan. Aside from two good SC Judges, Jorge's seven years in office have been a DISASTER for the GOP.

[maica]

Peggy Noonan turned against Bush on the day of his second Inaugural, and she has been irrational in her comdemnation of him ever since.

[ishabibble]

Truly incisive analysis.

[absolootezer0]

not any more than george 1 did.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Noonan is right on target with this. At least that’s the way it looks to me. Bush has been running on a deficit of political capital for a long time. He just can’t see it. He is a nice guy but he’s a divider, not a uniter.

[dinoparty]

Republicans are simply a victim of their own successes from 1980 through 2004. Everybody loves a “revolution” but people tire of “same old, same old”, even if it is correct.

[turducken]

Quite simply - yes - GW Bush largely destroyed both the Republican party and American conservatism.

[Scarchin]

Reading articles like this and a lot of the posts on this site in recent weeks, I think that folks need to look up the terms “hyperbole,” “Chicken Little,” and “gloom and doom.”

Sheesh!

We’re doomed, Gulliver! Doooooooomed!

[BallyBill]

It just seems like a short time ago everyone was asking if Howard Dean destroyed the Democrat Party.

May as well blame Bush, he doesn't believe in fighting back on worthless attacks.

[Antoninus]

Peggy's right. His second term has been a disaster. His idioitic position on illegal immigration cost us the Congress in 2006. And his inability to name a viable VP as heir apparent has resulted free-for-all mess of a campaign we see now.

Add to this his inexplicable decision to leave Clintonoids in the State and Justice Departments, CIA and the Pentagon.

Bush gets a solid D in my book, downgradable to a D- if Alito and/or Roberts rule the wrong way in the DC gun control case, and an F if Iraq regresses.

[PGalt]

Another great article by Ed Morrissey! Thanks for posting.

[advertising guy]

Peggy Noonan could not hold Dubya’s socks

[theDentist]

I always wonder about these pundits who want to heap 100% blame on a single character in Government, in the Party, in some org. The guy at the top bears a brunt of responsibility, but when the load is shared or blanaced, it’s hard to shift to his one pair of shoulders. I wonder if the authors who do this are just trying to spit out a column becuase they have 15 minutes before deadline, or if they had plenty of time to give it thought, yet decided not to. Either Way, It’s the President, the Republican Senators and Congressmen, the aides, advisors, the RNC all sharing the blame. They ran away from the core beliefs, and ignored us when we howled at them. And then we voted them back in.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Ping!

[Cyber Liberty]

It's not unusual for parties to have these debates -- and maybe if we'd had it in 2000, we would have elevated leaders more supportive of traditional Republican fiscal discipline rather than just blindly supported the people who threw that legacy in the wastebin.

The reason we didn't have it then, and won't unless the party is viewed as being in danger of total annihilation, is because the rot had already pretty well settled in: we have the same cast of characters since 1995. We're not going to have it any time soon, either.

[o_zarkman44]

When we had a congressional majority, the Democrats still managed to control the agenda with filibusters or the threat of. Judges, immigration, war spending, everything has been subject to conciliation with the Democrat Party.

But the Rats did a job on Bush because everything is Bush’s fault. Going back to the election in 2000 that Bush stole from the Rats, everything has been Bush’s fault.
As a leader of the GOP, Bush has indeed created a lot of division in the party. he has been given some very BAD ADVICE on many issues.

His worst advice was not listening to the people on illegal immigration. But congress has not been supportive, even when it had GOP control.

3 words of advice for the next GOP candidate.
LOOK, LISTEN, LIVE.