21 thoughts on “Don’t Like The GOP Field?”

  1. So if the Tea Party is now throwing President Bush under the bus for the mess the country is in, is it OK now for President Obama to blame the Bush Administration?

    Also this commentator is assuming the new wave of Tea Party elected officials will be able to hold on to their offices. That is a big IF. If there is a weak Republican candidate and low Republican turnout. Under those conditions many of them will likely turn into one term wonders.

    As a side note I am not sure if you saw that Gov. Gary Johnson has left the sinking Republican ship and is now running as a Libertarian candidate for president. It will be interesting to see who joins him.

    1. So the problem for the nation is that the Republican political pool for presidential candidates is a bit shallow? If only that were true.

    2. If Bush was the town drunk when it came to fiscal policy and spending, Obama has been the town meth addict. No, the town meth addict doesn’t get to blame the town drunk.

    3. So if the Tea Party is now throwing President Bush under the bus for the mess the country is in

      Porkbusters were doing it previously. I note many of PJmedia folks supported Porkbusters prior to the Tea Party being formed. So, their message is consistent and effective.

      1. “prior to the Tea Party being formed”

        Parties are formed, so is the Tea Party finally getting organized? Of is it still just a collection of ‘”fellow travelers” who common thread is disliking President Obama? If its still a collection of “fellow travelers” then what is the basis for your claim The Tea Party supported President Bush? Just one group?

  2. There’s some truth to the article but a few things I disagree with:

    It’s true that massive spending and size of government explosions hurt the GOP badly.

    But when the author says that:

    “….Republicans who were in the typical grooming positions for the presidency got coaxed into supporting Bush’s big government policies.”

    No one held a gun to their head. They didn’t have to knuckle under to non- conservative ideas.

    Furthermore, one of the things the Tea Party (and I) loathe is campaigning one way and voting another. That’s one reason why Obama is in trouble. And one reason why Boehner is in trouble.

    Boehner is handed a mandate and a huge victory and the first thing he does is appoint “curly-bulb” Upton to a major committee chairmanship.

    But the author misses THE major reason why we have a crummy bench this time:

    The GOP Establishment.

    The establishment picked Bush in 2000. It was all sewn up. McCain never had a chance. McCain was fighting an uphill battle.

    This time around the Establishment is behind Romney and has been from day one. He was selected by them…just like Dole. But the Tea Party isn’t sitting still for that. More importantly, the Republican voters aren’t taking that laying down. That’s why Mittens can’t gen up more than 25%.

  3. Oh, please. Bush presided over an era of 4% growth and 5% unemployment. He eliminated long term enemies of civilization and succeeded in shunting aside unsustainable Big Government solutions to Medicare, and at least made an attempt to reform Social Security before it blows up in our faces (which it will).

    He wasn’t a King or a Dictator, though, and some things were beyond his control, like the Democrats’ mortgage time bomb. Welcome to America.

    1. President Bush pumped up the economy with unnecessary stimulus measures until the bubble blew up, the went to his Texas ranch to party, leaving the rest of America to clean up his mess. Alan Greenspan’s assessments of the economic policies of Bush Administration in his book “The Age Of Turbulence” are right on target.

  4. Most of the economic “growth” in the past 30 years or so has been based on piling debt on top of more debt. In other words, it was an illusion predicated on borrowing from the future. Obviously, that sort of thing can’t go on forever.

  6. Nice try but the actual data doesn’t support your statement.

    When President Reagan took office the National Debt was only 32% of GDP. When the first President Bush left office the National Debt was 66% of GDP. The Clinton Administration lowered it to 56% of the GDP by the time the second President Bush took office. By the time the second President Bush left office it was up to 84% of GDP (as much as President Reagan and the first President Bush combined!). Under President Obama, stuck with a great recession from the Bush Administration’s bubble is has only increased by 15 % to 99% of GDP. So if anyone owns the National Debt is the Republicans.

    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11766

    1. Well, let us not forget that the Democrats controlled both houses of congress from 2006-2010. Spending also started to climb rapidly after they took over congress. The effects of this were made worse by the recession and TARP but TARP was repayed.

      Sure Bush spent a lot of money but he head help from the Democrats. Post Bush, with the presidency and both houses of congress the Democrats went crazy with spending.

  8. Gregg,

    That is not how Ayn Rand’s old sidekick, Alan Greenspan saw it in his book. If anything it appears that the Gingrich Congress kept it higher than it would have been due to unnecessary tax cuts.

Comments are closed.