Early in GWB’s first presidency, I might have agreed with Scarborough. That was a different George W. Bush back then, before he had spent 5 or 6 or 7 long years getting bashed by most the media, and at times by his fellow republicans.
Early on, George was brash, direct and at times jovial.
He’s not that way now. It seems all the fire has gone out of W.
I think the last time I saw that fully engaged, self assured George Bush, was in year 2006. In 2006, the “Dreamers” or children of illegal aliens began to ‘demand’ full citizenship of themselves, and of their other relatives. 2006, was the year I recall seeing thousands of hispanics marching down my neighborhood street with signs and banners ‘demanding’ quick citizenship. This aiding and abetting of illegal aliens stunned and confused many republican voters, including me.
It also didn’t help that in 2005, Bush nominated Harriet Miers for a Supreme Court seat, but many of the GOP did not see her as being qualified, and said so. After several weeks of debate, Ms Miers withdrew her name from consideration. This had to take some of the steam out of GWB’s engine. Deflating for a sitting president to see your plan for the Supreme Court collapsing in real time.
I think you’re right. The people who are ready to vote for Trump now, like me, understood Washington differently than they do now.
I agree.
Bush actually debated well in 2000. We all know about the first debate with sighing and pacing Al Gore, but Bush's best answer came in the third townhall-format debate.
On the question of the death penalty, Bush answered:
MEMBER OF AUDIENCE: In one of the last debates held, the subject of capital punishment came up, and in your response to the question, you seemed overly joyed and as a matter of fact proud that Texas led the nation in the execution of prisoners. Sir, did I misread your response and are you really, really proud of the fact that Texas is number one in executions?That answer still resonates with me because it showed someone with the proper EXECUTIVE mindset. Bush narrowed the issue down to the decision that he, as governor, was tasked to make. He didn't pontificate on the ills of capital punishment, he said that as governor, his job was 1) to verify that the person was found guilty and 2) had full access to the courts to appeal.BUSH: No, I’m not proud of that. The death penalty is a very serious business, Leo. It’s an issue that good people obviously disagree on. I take my job seriously. And if you think I was proud of it, I think you misread me, I do. I was sworn to uphold the laws of my state. During the course of the campaign in 1994 I was asked do you support the death penalty. I said I did if administered fairly and justly. Because I believe it saves lives, Leo, I do. If it’s administered swiftly, justly and fairly, it saves lives. One of the things that happens when you’re a governor, at least oftentimes you have to make tough decisions. You can’t let public persuasion sway you, because the job is to enforce the law. And that’s what I did, sir. There have been some tough cases come across my desk. Some of the hardest moments since I’ve been the governor of the State of Texas is to deal with those cases. But my job is to ask two questions, sir. Is the person guilty of the crime? And did the person have full access to the courts of law? And I can tell you looking at you right now, in all cases those answers were affirmative. I’m not proud of any record. I’m proud of the fact that violent crime is down in the State of Texas. I’m proud of the fact that we hold people accountable. But I’m not proud of any record, sir, I’m not.
Bush didn't let the societal debate on crime and punishment lure him into a mindset of nullification like today's leftist do; he took seriously the job he was electeed to do from an executive perspective, not an activist one.
I still believe that President Trump brought that same executive perspective to the job, and also tried to do it within the Constitutional boundaries of the office. Whenever the left got a judge to block Trump, he worked within the system to resolve the ruling -- he didn't ignore it or try to work around it.
That's what makes a person "presidential" and not a "maverick."
-PJ