Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Diane Ellis, Ed. ·
Sep 2, 2010 at 12:04pm
Jennifer Rubin on a new, rather surprising poll out of Ohio:
This, from Democratic pollster Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling, caused quite a stir yesterday: “[B]y a 50-42 margin voters [in Ohio] say they’d rather have George W. Bush in the White House right now than Barack Obama. Independents hold that view by a 44-37 margin and there are more Democrats who would take Bush back (11%) than there are Republicans who think Obama’s preferable (3%).”
To all those Democrats who continue to run on the premise that they'd be better than Bush, I say, "Go ahead. Make my day."
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Those were the good old days, weren't they? He made some mistakes, of course, but we knew he wasn't actively working to damage America as much as possible.
May '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Well, it is just me and Jay Nordlinger, but I am a major GW Bush fan. I will defend the vast majority of decisions he made. I am quite tired of all the bashing he gets from the Ron Paul wing.
I miss him quite a bit, and would even if McCain had won.
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Duane Oyen: Well, it is just me and Jay Nordlinger...
I suspect that there are an awful lot of people that are closet Bush lovers, even now. They're just too chicken to own up to it. Not so with you, Duane. You've got guts, and you're able to articulate quite eloquently the reasons you like him (which I think you've done in an earlier thread...or was it back in the days of the Ricochet facebook page?).
May '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
I still like Rob's idea that Bush should run for the House or Senate.
May '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
I don't think George Bush is loved in Ohio, I just think the respect stock has risen a bit.
My state is in dire straits and has been for quite some time. My church sits next to the abandoned Hoover Company. Once an industrial giant (my mother helped make tracer bullets there for the Navy in WWII) it was sold off to Whirlpool, then Maytag and then finally to a competitor who only wanted the name and logo so it could be slapped on a piece of junky plastic from China.
A year ago it seemed like every other house on my street was for sale. We're bleeding jobs and population. The Republicans are up in the polls right now but they better have a plan. If they don't it will be lights out around here.
Sep '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Important, too, Diane, to keep in mind that there are a great many conservatives who are legitimately upset with what happened during the Bush administration. Was he attacked continually (for the better part of 8 years, no less) in the most slanderous ways by a manic mob of not-so-closeted-fascist-hypocrites? Sure. But that doesn't mean that he was "right" in any of a great number of areas, most of which related to limiting the size and scope of the Federal Government. By his own admission he was not by any stretch of the imagination what we would call "conservative". Compassionate conservatism - a fundamental contradiction - was an early (and probably the best) example, but there are certainly others. The anger in the country didn't start with the current Administration - which has simply proven exceptionally adept at kicking hornets' nests and then forgetting to run away - and it would be to our great benefit to keep that in mind...
Edited on Sep 2, 2010 at 4:20pmAug '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
George W. Bush is okay by me. First, he gave us John Roberts and Sam Alilto, brilliant, youngish Supreme Court jurists. Second, he guided us safely through over 7 years of post-9/11 safety, which was no sure thing on 9/12. Third, he cut taxes. Fourth, he held firm on life issues. Fifth, he had an iron backbone when it came to prevailing in Iraq.
Whatever his faults -- and he had them -- conservatives own him their gratitude. Once the media mantra became that Iraq was "lost," and the economic woes were "his" (as opposed to Barney Frank's) fault, he had no chance in the eyes of the larger public.
Edited on Sep 2, 2010 at 7:56pmMay '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
I agree with Mac Sledge. Also, I'm in Ohio and have that photo on the wall in my kitchen. Right across from my work island.
Jun '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Rollin on Dubbie Dubs!
May '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Forrest, every one of the complaints I heard from conservatives in the last eight years mirrored very similar complaints I heard from the Right between 1981 and 1989- I bet that Peter remembers a few. It started with TEFRA, and went downhill from there, all the caterwauling that broke loose on the Right over his talks with Gorbachev when all the "bomb them!" gang said he'd given away the store (SDI) by talking.
Good government by definition cannot satisfy your own most rigid partisans- look at the complaints about Obama from the Left; you'd think that TVG was governing like Mitch Daniels.
Bush was, and governed as, a rational conservative.
Sep '10
Re: Miss Me Yet? Ohio Says "Yes!"
Couple of things, here. First, while I agree with your statement about the inability to satisfy the most rigid partisans, it's just a fact that many things President Bush did weren't merely upsetting to the fringe. They genuinely upset the base, even if the base was having problems processing just why it was upset (the Wars were, of course, very distortive in this). Look at the differences in simple approval polling at the end of 1988 and at the end of 2008. The data remain stunning.
Frankly, until the Obama Administration came along there hadn't been in at least a generation anything comparable to the increases in discretionary Federal spending we saw under the Bush Administration. The comparisons with Reagan seem almost absurd in hindsight, and even then the most controversial spending under Reagan was directly related to defense. While it's tempting to make the case that the discretionary spending increases under 41 were, in fact, defense related - at least in a sense - I don't think that case holds. Rationality aside, it's questionable whether this can be considered "conservative" governance.