George W. Bush, Skunk at the Party

With the Iowa caucuses tonight, the AP’s covered a particular feature of the Republican campaign with this headline:

“George W. Bush presidency barely mentioned in Republican contest.”

The non-bylined article reports,

“In a presidential contest dominated by concerns over the weak economy, government spending and the $15 trillion federal debt, the Republican candidates have been loath to acknowledge the extent to which Bush administration policies contributed to those problems.”

Though Repub officials and candidates would clearly prefer to see the rest of the country forget about George W. Bush, all current polling shows that much of the country continues to hold him responsible for our economic troubles. Meanwhile, Repubs, hoping to fumigate the bad odor of Bush from the midst of voters are quick to claim that any mention by President Obama of the Bush years is sour grapes or unfair. That’s crap, and the president should not refrain from mentioning the preceding administration when necessary, but it can be handled well by national DEMs and articulate surrogates. All supporters of the president should make sure the country remembers the twisted, ideological partisanship of the Bush administration, the nightmare at the beginning of this century, lest the country saddle itself with a replay of Republican extremism in the White House. And, let’s push the media to write about a malignant administration that held office for eight years, and which has been out of office for not even half that span yet.