[TADSLOS]

W, who I am inclined to like personally, is still shamefully naive and self righteous about "not defending himself," - which is precisely what tanked his and the GOP's reputation. He was so poor at this, that the GOP simultaneously became more unpopular with both liberals and conservatives.

A fair assessment. The compassionate conservative marketing scheme GW Bush used had a 4 year shelf life, if that. What he and Rove sold was not delivered, bottom line. An aside, if Bush feels he doesn't need to defend himself, why does he keep bringing the subject up? I suspect it's designed to provide cover for Jeb.

[C. Edmund Wright]

The compassionate conservative marketing scheme GW Bush used had a 4 year shelf life, if that. What he and Rove sold was not delivered, bottom line. An aside, if Bush feels he doesn't need to defend himself, why does he keep bringing the subject up? I suspect it's designed to provide cover for Jeb.

You are a bit more charitable than am I. My take is that the compassionate conservatism schtick was dead on arrival because it was based on the false premise that conservatism itself is not compassionate. I doubt W even realizes this. As for the other, yes, I think cover for Jeb is part of it. I also think he remains cluless.