Although he did a number of things right during 8 years, allowing the MSM and the rest of the left to engage in a relentless attack WITHOUT RESPONDING cost not only the republican party, but more importantly, the NATION dearly. Perhaps his greatest contributions—Roberts and Alito, although he was frankly FORCED into the former.
Great point. Although I respect his opinions on maintaining the dignity of the office and so-forth, the truth is that we are now living in the post-Alinsky era where absolutely EVERYTHING is subject to the political equivalent of Extreme Cagefighting. Do you damned well better be out there defending yourself with as good as you get.
One of the main things I fault him for is playing footsy for so long with the UN while Iraq spirited all the WMD away to Syria. The left would have still attacked but the public reaction to the war would have been entirely different had we gone in soon enough to seize Saddam's WMD.
As for not responding to the MSM, that's a systemic GOP problem in a HUGE way. LONG AGO someone should have publicly challenged the MSM to drop the bias and report the news. LONG AGO. Instead, Republicans constantly try to buddy up to the press, try to make themselves "liked" by the press, and NEVER seem to learn that the MSM hate their guts and will hate their guts no matter how nice and polite they are. They must be challenged as what they are, an enemy.
Boy, you can say that again! The cat had his tounge (and were camped in the mouths of all Republicans) for eight long years! Rove was great at elections; governing, not so much!