The funny thing about that Bush endorsement was, as TPM put it, where in the world is W?
Where’s W? The presidential campaign trail has had no shortage of Bushes lately. Barbara Bush has recorded robocalls for Mitt Romney; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has handed Romney a highly sought-after endorsement; President George H.W. Bush jumped in for Romney last week as well.
But the most famous Bush — the last Republican to hold the job Romney is vying for — President George W. Bush, has been mostly invisible from the 2012 contest. The Republicans running for president haven’t had much to say about him either. Neither Bush nor Romney is interested in seeing W. thrown into the mix further down the road. Too bad, say Democrats.
Funny, huh? Especially since Republicans are still backing Bush's policies: more tax cuts for the rich, another war in the Middle East, anti-science, pro-deregulation - further to the right on immigration reform, but that's really their only difference from our last Republican president.
Republicans are running on the platform of returning to George W. Bush, without mentioning George W. Bush at all! Gee, I wonder why? Do you think maybe the fact that all of his policies failed horribly - disastrously - could have something to do with it?
Republicans are faith-based, so they still have faith in their right-wing dogma, despite the results. But they're skilled enough at politics that they're avoiding George W. Bush like the plague. So we get politicians pledging to return us to the Bush presidency while being very, very careful not to say that.
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All those lukewarm endorsements are fascinating. How are guys like Pataki going to start endorsing him when he is the only candidate, any reporter worth their salt would just start playing that clip of him throwing Romney under the bus.
Are there any reporters worth their salt, John? I'm not sure I've seen any for the past decade or so.
Reporters these days think that their job is to report what "both sides" say. If a politician says something today that completely contradicts what he said yesterday, most reporters don't think it's their job to point that out. That's being "biased," you see.
Even Katie Couric's mild questioning of Sarah Palin is now considered "gotcha" journalism from the liberal press. At least, that's how the right-wing sees it, and the right-wing constantly hammers on the "lamestream" media for bias (ironically, given Fox News).
Those attacks work, too. It doesn't make any difference if they're completely ridiculous, because some people will believe them. Constant repetition does that.
And the media are businesses, and they require viewers. To stay in business, it's better to play it safe, at least in this environment.
Of course, there's the new media - blogs and YouTube videos and such - but those tend to preach to the choir. If you're partisan, you visit those sites that back up what you already think. If you're not partisan, you watch kittens and music videos, instead.
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