Is there any chance G W Bush finally emerges from his self quarantine on political issues and speaks out in 2013? I understand that G W is a classy guy and thinks Presidents shouldn’t speak ill of current Presidents (which he got from his dad) but times have changed and so have these rules.
Has there ever been a President that took more crap than G. W. Bush ? Bill Clinton attacked him after leaving the office at every opportunity for eight years. This spilled over to when Obama was campaigning against McCain personally attacking Bush hourly on the campaign trail. Did Bush say anything or defend himself ever? No. Nearly four years later and another “Obama runs against Bush campaign” and Bush stayed silent again.
When if not now is Bush ever going to defend himself? And better yet defend all of us that defended him constantly during those times? I am sure some Republicans are rolling their eyes reading this, but I think if Bush took even 10% of the time Clinton does speaking out about issues and talking to the media it would go a long way in changing false opinions of him engrained into their head by Slick Willy, Obummer and the MSM.
Perception is reality and the majority of people still blamed Bush in the exit polls of the 2012 election for the current conditions. What else could change these perceptions better than Bush getting out and defending himself against these false presumptions? Clearly the silent treatment hasn’t worked.
Bush is a charming guy and I believe he could shatter a lot of myths if he puts his boots back on and gets on the horse. I’m not advocating he get a show on Fox or something, just talk to a few reporters and “Meet The Press” every now and then. The truth shall set us free. BM
Bill — I am less wishful and more demanding. Bush could have steered clear of overt politicking if that is his bugaboo and defended those who elected and defended his policies. Good conservatives fell on their swords for him. He let them down. R Mall
Well he can’t do one without staying away from the other. The moment Bush defends the people who defended him will be the moment the MSM proclaims “Bush gets back into politics.” I agree with your general sentiment though. Bush stayed silent on everything and totally crapped on us. In turn letting everybody else crap on us and make up whatever narrative they wanted.
Take “torture” for example. Cheney and everybody was out in front of this defending him and the administration for years. Now in the new movie “Zero Dark Thirty” they basically say that “torture” was the reason for them being able to get Bin Laden. Has Bush been out trying to clear things up? No he’s still silent and letting the Huffpost and MSNBC spin the same lies. Seriously, Huffpost is working overtime continuing to discredit this.
I share the sentiments BM’s and Roger’s comments reflect. I’m not sure, however, that if GW were to come out more publicly and defend Conservatives and some of his own policies (which, by comparison to the aspiring dictator we now have in the Oval Office, are proving to be, in the main, wise, productive, and in line with the America which, until BO, was admired, respected, and of course envied by the world), might not be counterproductive.
Let’s just imagine Bush meeting with the Ed board at the QC Times (I know, I can’t imagine any rational reason to meet with a class “D” team like that, but…). And, maybe a hard hitting interview by Gary Metevier at KWQC.
How do you think Mr. Bush’s comments and his record on which they would be based would be played by the paper and the station? I think we both know. Now, project that same “fair” reporting on the part of WaPo and the NYT and NBC, and….. The only difference between the QCT’s portrayal and the “mainstream” is the latter would not come across quite so much as second string Babe Ruth Leaguers strutting as though they were MLB All Stars.
It may not work either, but I’d like to see respected pundits and the few conservative news and opinion outlets aggressively and intelligently continue to make the case as Hanson has done and allow Mr. Bush to maintain his respectful and dignified silence. He should have done more on defense when he was on the stage but he didn’t and that ship has sailed. Gus
Fair point regarding the effectiveness of Bush being the front man but it seems that he could issue press releases, selective interviews, you know the Obama Hillary approach to the continuing campaign. He certainly could set up a C-4 or some entity, aggressively raise money for it, to set the record straight. I am not enamored with his above it all demeanor “let history decide” while bad people destroy the future of the people that invested in him. A good President with no follow through.
Just one more note on this: BM notes that when BO was campaigning against McCain, he was attacking GW daily. As I recall, Senator McCain was attacking Mr. Bush ( and his own party) almost as much as Obama was. McCain was far more protective of BO (” do not use his middle name, “Hussein”; you recall one GOP county chairman or something was fired for using it in an introduction of McCain?) In fact, I don’t remember many GOP candidates who were running in ’08 defending GW or his policies. Gus
I remember that. It was Billy Cunningham. He is a really great talk show guy from Ohio (and has a day time whosyourdaddy talk show on mediacom CW channel for some reason today) who was on Hannity a lot. He was firing up the crowd and said Obama’s full name.
For some reason McCain’s sissy handlers rushed to have him hold a presser to repudiate the comments. Relive the full McCain made national controversy at this link-
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/mccain-repudiates-hussein-obama-remarks/