THANK YOU!
And selling a war by raising those type of reasonable expectations in the public (as I was sold on it myself) is a political disaster, when combined with WMDs. Bush never dug himself out of that one even after successful surge, but he was re-elected so the voters had to look to other republicans to hurt on election days.
I am not saying that the financial crisis bailout didnt hurt real bad, it did. But Iraq, high gas prices, the crash, the debt are all tied together in many voters minds.
Again, no. - Although I understand the overarching point that you are making.
All of those were simple excuses, projected as rational reasons, when the underlying dynamic was opined plainly and simply in 2004
“Anyone but Bush.”
It has simply morphed back into the more generic “Anyone but any republican.”
And Thats the way it is.
You can't beat a democrat nobody with a GOP nobody. - Period.