Posted on 05/15/2018 3:06:53 PM PDT by Signalman
In February 2010, just about a full year after Barack Obama took office, a series of billboards mysteriously popped up along Interstate 35 in a town called Wyoming, Minn.
They showed a photo of a waving President George W. Bush, flashing a cheeky grin, above copy that said, "Miss me yet?"
The meme quickly caught on and soon plastered car rear bumpers, T-shirts and posters.
But despite the viral spread of "Miss me yet?" merchandise, it turned out that the answer was decidedly: No. America, by and large, did not miss President Bush yet.
He left office with a 33 percent favorability rate, according to Gallup. By the time the billboards were up in 2010, it had only recovered to the mid-40s.
But in the years since, Bush has nearly doubled his popularity. A CNN poll from January 2018 has his approval at 61 percent. In just the two years since Trump became the Republican nominee for President, that number has climbed six points.
A new report by Roxanne Roberts in the Washington Post explores some of the reasons for the newfound admiration, including the simple benefit of time, a reconciling of the complexities of the Iraq War, and the fact that Bush has remained fairly quiet in the years since leaving the White House.
"Time has done the reputation of President Bush a lot of good," says Fred Kempe, president of the Atlantic Council, which recently awarded Bush the Distinguished International Leadership Award. "[T]he longer time goes on and his presidency is reassessed, the better he looks."
Of course, it could be argued that the "Miss me yet?" meme could be revived in the wake of Trump, as more and more Democrats are discovering their untapped affection for their former enemy. According to a January 2018 CNN report, "most of Bush's climb back to popularity came from Democrats and Independents." Among Democrats, his favorability in February of 2009 was a mere 11 percent. It is now at 54 percent.
I know I'll be called establishment for this, but after almost a year and a half of Trump's antics -- his tweets, his bullying, his lies, his lack of intellectual curiosity, his brittle inability to withstand scrutiny, his angry, uninformed blurting, his hostility toward valued Democratic institutions -- it's hard not to miss Bush.
You can hold Bush accountable for his policy decisions -- and criticize his decision to invade Iraq -- while acknowledging that Americans didn't know just how good they had it at the time when many decided Bush was evil incarnate.
And now, the differences stand in stark relief.
There are the little things. Bush could laugh at himself. His self-deprecating sense of humor was famously disarming. He wasn't too proud to take a joke, nor was he punitive about jokes at his expense.
And while he could be pointed, he was never mean. A universe away from berating a war hero or mocking a disabled journalist, the meanest Bush ever got was in his penchant for awarding nicknames to everyone in his orbit, from "Hurricane Karen" for adviser Karen Hughes, to "Pootie Poot" for Vladimir Putin.
As Sen. Roy Blunt says of his friend, then as much as now, he is "a person who doesn't have to be critical of everybody else, a person who understands how big these problems are, a person who just has a sense of the right way to conduct yourself as a former president."
While W. could range from inartful to inarticulate at times -- his gaffes are infamous -- Trump makes a daily virtue of his own ignorance and insists anyone who points out his willful ignorance is "establishment." When it's clear Trump is wrong, rather than admit or correct it, he simply calls the correction fake news. That habit has trickled down to his communications shop and surrogates, and it's an embarrassing display.
Perhaps more importantly, Bush was "America Best," not "America First." He was hugely patriotic and optimistic about America's role in the world, but not in service of denigrating other cultures or parts of the world. His tremendous commitment to the international AIDS crisis was, for him, an opportunity to help developing nations while elevating America's leadership.
Upon receiving an award last week, he said "I'd really like to dedicate it to the generosity of the American people and ask you to spread the word about what this great compassionate nation has done."
I was long a Bush supporter, but 2007 me could hardly imagine a world in which he would be honored by a bipartisan think tank and receive three standing ovations.
But in 2018, with Trump as a backdrop, it's no wonder we are increasingly open to reimagining Bush's historic "awfulness," and remembering how he wasn't so bad, after all.
I lost a lot of respect for the Bush family since 2016.
S E Cupp is a Loser.
Me too. Bush looks worse to me each day. He was a total disaster and a Closet Lefty who loved Big Government and overseas wars. Sorry I don’t miss him.
It’s hard to take someone seriously when deliberately chooses a version of her name that comes out to “A C cup.”
None of the events that transpired over the last 28 years would have happened to a more informed, alert & vigilant electorate.
And yet, it did happen. So, the necessary pain and suffering was required to teach everyone the same life lessons every generation since the first proto-humans stood up had to be (re)learned.
I've said this over the years, but evil always eventually loses. It just doesn't have the same degree of discipline and diligence as virtue. After all, that's why it's evil: it appeals to the lazy as an easy short cut to power.
But, once the masses of silent men finally resolve to deal with the issue, the card of houses comes tumbling down. If Trump decides to fully prosecute this treason, it will take the proglibs generations to mount another threat to liberty.
Dallas Texas 2006, during war time, under Republican George Bush.
500,000 illegal aliens march on Dallas Texas pushing foreign flags in our faces and while making demands and threats. All while Bush celebrated Cinco De Mayo up in the White House each year...During war time yet.
This is the same NeverTrumper beeotch who signed the Trump is an evil misogynist letter as well as the Natl Review Never Trump letter.
She’s a discarded piece of trash.
She even fell for Glenn Beck’s Weaselly carp.
Bush taught me a hard lesson about trusting politicians and thinking that they’ll do good things later despite decisions not looking so good in the present.
Despite liking Trump, I’m still in a “trust but verify” mode and will not praise him until Im able to see his entire Presidency. I defended everything Bush did up until right after his reelection ... Once I saw how he was simply mailing in his Presidency and let the liberals run him over (and liking it), I realized I was used and vowed to never be that stupid again. When I saw him turn his back on Trump after having watched the press literally destroy W and his supporters, I couldn’t have cared less what happened to Bush.
When arguing with liberals online, I refer to Trump as God Emperor of the United States just to make their blood boil (saw that on 4chan and Reddit :-)) ... When talking seriously, I temper my enthusiasm and hope Trump continues to steer this country onto a path of fiscal discipline (hasn’t happened yet) and freedom (we are getting there ... Tax cuts were a good start for many, but not all). I’d certainly vote for Trump again, but I’ll always fear being misled after W.
Finally, C-cupp should realize that the ONLY reason Bush is getting higher approval ratings now is due to the press wanting to make Trump look as bad as possible ... I’ll bet W is still stuck at 40% having angered his base and the left being programmed to hate anyone that isn’t a full blown Communist these days. There is no way a majority of this country approves of W’s presidency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAtUq0OJ68
Here is audio of a Bush speech a couple years prior to the housing crash, where Bush is demanding home loans for totally unqualified minorities.
Bush was for open borders and globalism with no thought for the future of Americans or their jobs.
Ditto. I used to like him; now not so much.
Stay out da Lieberal Booshies. ...
McCain never stood up for Conservatives either.
W is the best President Mexico ever had.
at least until Obama showed up
You forgot the barf alert ...
“(Trump’s) tweets, his bullying, his lies, his lack of intellectual curiosity, his brittle inability to withstand scrutiny, his angry, uninformed blurting, his hostility toward valued Democratic institutions”.
Author had to be drinking or smoking a mind altering substance when this was written - the statement describes BHO, the Clintons, and most leftists that I have ever encountered. Note for example ... Hilliary still hasn’t accepted the 2016 election results ... and this after she bullied Trump about whether he’d accept the results of the election (he essentially said, they would have to wait and he would let them know)... her current hostility against the voters and that includes her (and her party’s) attacks against the “institution” of the Electoral College.
Oh... and their type of leftist intellectual curiosity brought North Korea to the table .../s I could go on and on and on and on ....
Yes. And the Dems were in lock step with that message.
Bush got all of the blame and the Conservative brand took a nosedive as a result. “We the People” got four years of a Democratic House lead by Dingbat, a Democratic senate for six years (led by a guy that lost a fight to a treadmill, and two of those years were a supermajority for all intents and purposes), and eight years of BHO.
Thanks W! He might have been better than Gore and Kerry ... but colon cancer is also better than lung cancer.
The enemy of their enemy is their friend....
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