Posted on 11/15/2012 7:41:40 AM PST by Kaslin
Democrats have been blaming George W. Bush for the last four years.
Now I think it's time for Republicans to start blaming George W. for the next four years.
For a week we've been pinning last week's debacle on everything from Mitt Romney's moderation to low Republican turnout.
But the most important Republican who didn't turn out to support Romney this fall was George W. Bush.
You can make an honest argument that G.W. was as much to blame as anyone else for our being unable to defeat an incompetent incumbent of historic proportions.
For four years Barack Obama has blamed the Great Recession on G.W. and used his presidency as his excuse for why the economy is taking so long to get fixed.
And where's G.W. been? MIA or AWOL, take your pick.
He didn't show up at the GOP convention. He didn't become an enthusiastic surrogate for Romney in a handful of swing states where a few hundred thousand more Republican voters could have changed history. He didn't stump for senatorial candidates in contested states such as Virginia and Montana.
G.W., the ex-cheerleader, was nowhere to be seen or heard during Romney's campaign. What's worse, he didn't even defend his own economic record. He let the conservatives on talk radio and at Fox News do it.
The trouble is talk radio and Fox only reach about 20 million people during a week - and most of them are already in the conservative Republican choir.
Last I checked, 121 million Americans voted on Election Day. That left us Republicans with 101 million people who still needed to hear our message about who's really to blame for the broken economy of 2008 to 2012.
We griped and moaned and pointed to Obama, but the mainstream liberal media were too busy protecting their hero to fairly tell our side of the story.
The only way conservatives can get the national news media to deliver our message to the American people is to go over the media's heads. And the only people who can do that consistently are ex-presidents of the USA.
Bill Clinton became Obama's best propaganda weapon. When Clinton claimed that no one, not even a super-genius like him, could have solved the economic problem G.W. Bush left Obama within four years, every voter in America heard it.
Even Jimmy Carter was hauled out of mothballs to help the Democrat cause.
The 2012 campaign was all about "the economy, stupid." Obama blamed G.W. and Republicans. Plus, he had Clinton and Carter bashing G.W.'s record with their bully sticks every day and countering Romney's arguments that Obama was to blame.
We should have had G.W. standing up and saying, "This is bull. I'm tired of this. This is what I did or did not do with the economy as president. The real culprits are Dodd & Frank and four years of Obama's failed policies."
Instead G.W. stayed quiet, even on the issue of Benghazi. Because he refused to show up and defend himself and his record, the Republican Party had to take arrows for him and we lost our second presidential election in a row.
The question I'd like to ask my fellow conservative Republicans is, if G.W. isn't willing to stand up for his own presidency, why the heck should we?
I tend to agree with you. I blame Bush for allowing himself to become the most hated man in America during his last term, which allowed the press to portray him as the second Herbert Hoover after his term was over. He was so demonized that any effort after September 2008 to rehabilitate his military or financial policies would have failed. His mistake was letting it get to that point, from 2002 to 2008, his refusal to fight back. He let them get away with so much during that time, and eventually, it stuck.
It doesn’t bother me that someone wrote this nonsense, I expected it. What bothers me is that Michael Reagan wrote it. I like MR, but I really thought he was smarter than that.
Don’t know whether W. wanted in or not...but I do know the the eGOP assclowns had no use for him, regardless.
This is a pretty stupid article. The GOP hasn’t done anything to defend GW and in fact they didn’t want anything to do with him regarding any campaign.
It would have been cooties to have Bush endorse anyone.
GWB has been slandered about THIS economy. GWB had nothing to do with this economy outside of expanding entitlements (which is what the current dictator is doing).
Author is smoking in a bag. (My opinion)
GW and Sarah didn’t paraticipate because they would have diluted Romney’s campaign message.
The MSM did a thorough hack job on GW and Sarah. Just review the posts of the last four years and even Freepers bought into it. We are part of the problem. We are just as gullible as the Democrats.
Michael, you are wrong on this. Did you really want to give Obama that lightning rod? You know and I know that a renewed chorus of Bush’s Fault is ridiculous but with a complicit media and a dumber-than-dirt electorate? No, GWB did Romney a huge favor by staying in the background.
Agreed. W’s second term was a complete disaster.
I failed to notice the author was M. Reagan. WOW!
I’m embarrassed for him. WTH?
He’s better than that. Oh, Shame.
Yep...
I agree with you about the bad candidate, but if conservatives don’t address their 5:1 disadvantage in the media, then we’re starting with both hands tied behind our backs.
We have: Talk Radio
We sort of have: Fox, FoxB, WashTimes
They have: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, CSPAN, PBS, NYT, WASHP, USATODAY, All of Entertainment TV, Movies, and etc.
We can reach about 20 million a day.
They can reach (and ignore telling) a coupla hundred million.
People STILL don’t know what Benghazi is. But they do know that someone had an affair.
Not Hardly, The Dems talked about him everyday.
Romney lost because he ran as something that is completely foreign to him....a conservative. Geo. Bush won two terms because he successfully ran as something he was not....a conservative. I voted for him four times....I was fooled as much as anyone!!!
I can’t imagine why not since he is a card-carrying RINO like most of them.
Hence his politically tone-deaf "47%" comment....he tries to throw red meat to conservatives, but every time he tried it came out wrong....one with true convictions doesn't do that.
I like Michael Reagan. But, in this instance, Michael Reagan is DEAD wrong. There are people in the GOP to blame for this loss, but George W. Bush isn’t one of them. Besides, even if Bush was a beloved President, such as was Reagan, Romney wouldn’t have benefited from Bush’s participation. The media, and the Obozo fraud team, would have made sure of that.
You beat me to it........In fact, he's owed a long reprieve from the public eye and I hope he's doing a lot of well earned hunting and fishing.......
Funny now Romney losing is President Bushs fault. BDS really is amazing
Of course, former Rat Presidents never go away.
agree. Michael Reagan, et tu, Brute? Why are the Republicans so willing to ‘eat their own’? Rarely see the Dems do this.
I suspect ‘W’ knew or ‘was advised’ that his active support of the Republican candidate would not be helpful. Yes, he was damned no matter what he did or did not do. Enough, leave this man alone!!
I, too, did not agree with all positions of G.W. but I believe he, like me, loves America with every fiber of his being. For this, his integrity, courage and his love of our military members and their families, I will always respect and admire him. I miss him!
You beat me to it........In fact, he's owed a long reprieve from the public eye and I hope he's doing a lot of well earned hunting and fishing.......
As a side note, Pres. Bush is involved with the Wounded Warrior Project and participates in their annual two day event which I think is a 100 mile mountain bike ride....
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