“Bush’s voice has the singular power to reach moderate Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters“
There used to be Freepers who practically WORSHIPPED George W Bush
If you said any criticism , the response was “Right , it’s Bush’s fault, sure”
“There used to be Freepers who practically WORSHIPPED George W Bush”
I was one of them during his first term. Not so much on FR since I didn’t sign up until Nov 2004, but I was a cheerleader of his. I don’t think he was doing a bad job right up until he was re-elected.
Remember his push to privatize Social Security in early 2005? That lasted all of, what, 15 minutes. Republicans had 58 Senators and had a comfortable margin in the House. NOTHING WAS DONE WITH HIS “political capital”.
Then, after a few months of absolutely nothing, you had Hurricane Katrina.
Bush handled the storm just fine. He let the media walk all over him and, by extension, conservatism though. The media, thanks to his soft approach, made it look like everything was Bush’s fault. The Mayor of New Orleans (Nagin) was worshiped. That idiot Governor of LA, Katherine Blanco maybe (I forget her name), despite crying, was labeled a hero by the left. Bush gladly accepted their “evil racist killer” award with glee.
He seemed all but relieved when Republicans lost the House and Senate in 2006.
The *only* time the guy fought back was when he was trying to ram amnesty down our throats (”See you at the signin’.”)
I was in my late 20s / early 30s during his Presidency ... I felt used after he left.
You have every single right to remind anyone that was a Bush sycophant here on this forum what he really was :-). You were certainly right in the end. I learned that there wouldn’t have been any difference if Kerry would have won in 2004 (I will still maintain that it was better to have Bush as POTUS during 9/11 than the idiot Gore ... however, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the elections since HW Bush in 1992 were all fixed at the outset).
In his first term I liked W. I wasn't crazy about him creating a new entitlement, redesigning out educational system with the help of the likes of Ted Kennedy, or signing campaign finance law while saying as he literally signs it that he thinks it's unconstitutional. But I remained a supporter. When he won in 2004 and bragged about having political capitol to spend I was curious what he'd do. He decided to spend the next four years giving us all the finger and trying over and over and over and over and over and over to get amnesty. Screw him forever. He was never with us, we just talked ourselves into believing he was because the alternative, that there was absolutely no difference between the two parties and they were all against us was too horrible to conemplate. But it was true. Until Trump.