It was precisely W’s New Tone which was responsible for the Republicans’ diminished standing. A true wimp in the face of political venom. Had he effectively lead his party in slapping down the Democrat slander of our fighting men and women in the military, the American people would have followed as well. Instead, he ceded the field of political battle to the traitors.
And now we see the results.
Likewise with the financial meltdown--the Republicans didn't try to put the blame where it belonged. The public didn't know what to think and was willing to believe the Democrats' accusation that it was Bush's fault.
Little was made of national security this year--as if our enemies are going to stop trying to destroy us just because an apostate Muslim is President. Out of highmindedness, Bush never made an issue of Clinton's refusal to take Obama from the Sudan when they offered to hand him over--and in return, had Hillary waving a newspaper headline on the floor of the Senate suggesting that he had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and Bill & Hillary getting their henchmen Ben-Veniste and Gorelick on the 9/11 commission.
i agree with you. there were many winning issues for republicans but
neither bush or cheney rarely defended themselves and let dems
set the agenda. zero, zero leadership. bush apparently could
not bring himself to engage in pr.
“And now we see the results.”
Exactly.
Which makes me surmise that Bush purposely had a hand in the Hussein win. Not sure why.
I also find it interesting that even when McCaine-Palin were trending strongly upward in the polls — mainly due to Palin — Bill Clinton was interviewed and said “Don’t worry. Obama will win handily.” He was right, but did he have access to information that no one else did?
Bush had the chance to use the presidency as the bully-pulpit and he chose not to do so.
He could have vetoed many things, including McCain/Feingold but chose not to do so. We still have border guards in jail while a drug trafficker was allowed into the United States.
We have the corruption of Dodd and Frank with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and there are no justice department investigations in the making. Yet Stevens from Alaska is indicted with taking illegal gifts?! Good grief.