I still am very disappointed that he held the door wide open to Barack Obama. I truly believe that GW is a good man, but I also think he was mistaken in trying to be a “me, too!” kinda leader. He should’ve held to conservative principles; instead, he gave way and ultimately helped the Dems regain enough power to shove catastrophic stuff down our throats.
” He shouldve held to conservative principles” the BUSHES NEVER had ANY “conservative principles” to hold on to.
There is a major reason why we have Barak Obama as president, and it doesn’t get discussed much here because places like this website are very much to blame: Litmus tests are making it very difficult for any conservative to emerge from the primary scrum. So instead of nominiating an electable candidate who will take the fight directly to Obama, we have nominated two successive “nice guy” moderates who never polled above 25% in early voting.
I still believe Newt Gingrich would be president right now if he wasn’t destroyed by this website.
I think GW Bush was a Harvard frat boy all along, but like to play the “country boy” role for our consumption. The guy expanded federal intrusion into education, gave us a massively expensive drug plan, and did nothing to deter Iran or Pakistan.
Except he didn't have any.
My writeup on Bush here in the Summer of 1999 no longer exists. I'll try to reproduce it from memory.
He came to our small town in July of 1999 to campaign in the GOP primary. He spent the night on an island in Lake Winnipesaukee with (very rich) friends, and arrived at the town docks in a caravan of classic wooden boats accompanied by the country club elite, in straw boaters, blue blazers and Docksiders.
He made his way to the bandstand and started to speak.
After a few perfunctory remarks about "conservative principles", he got into the meat. First: The real American heroes are single moms. They have the toughest job, having to work and raise a family. When he is President, he will take care of them and make sure the men who abandon them will be found and will pay. Second: Education. When he is President, the Federal government will turn its might to fixing it. Every child in America deserves the same education. Third: Seniors. When he is President, they will have better Medicare and more free stuff (drugs). Fourth: Salute our armed forces, they are the tip of the spear.
End.
I got to shake his hand. I said to him, "Governor - of course you know women file 80% of the divorces". He had dead eyes.
That night, I wrote this up and said, in conclusion, "He is our Clinton", meaning that he could talk a dog off a meat truck but didn't mean a word he said about conservatism.
Fortunately, he only got 29% of the vote up here.
Was he a good man? Yes, I believe he was. Did he have conservative principles to stick to? Not a one.
A placeholder of underwhelming help; he gave conservatives only Alito.