The GOP has been protesting that the Democrats must not ever mention George W. Bush, that anything wrong with the economy is the President's and nobody but the President's-Paul Ryan's Congress takes no responsibility nor does Mitch McConnell who said his number one priority was not creating jobs or fixing the economy but making sure Obama is a one term President.
Despite the whining of Jeb Bush-'stop blaming my brother'-the fact is that most Americans still blame Bush for the economy. And it's interesting that Bush was nowhere near Tampa last week.
"Friends, there’s is a little gathering going on over in Charlotte. Heard about this? Now, we know that your governor’s over there, and your lieutenant governor, and we also know that President Obama’s over there. And President Obama’s going to be giving a big speech. There are going to be a lot of speeches.
Lots of words. Let me quote President Obama four years ago. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. Ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what Barack Obama is doing today."
“You see, the president has no record to run on. In fact, every president since the great depression who asked Americans to send them into second term could say that you were better off today than you were four years go except Jimmy Carter and President Barack Obama. ..."
“So when you take a look at what we’re going to hear in Charlotte today, the president will say a lot of things and he will, but he can’t tell you that you’re better off. Simply put, the Jimmy Carter days look like the good old days compared to where we are right now. And so that’s why we have a very crystal clear choice. We can either choose to stay on the path that we are on, a path of debt, a path of doubt and decline, a path of joblessness, or we can get things turned around. We can elect Mitt Romney the next president of the United States and we can get America back on track.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/09/ryan-carter-looks-better-than-obama-134212.html?hp=l13
It's interesting that Jimmy Carter will be at the DNC convention this week where as Bush was banned last week in Tampa. Americans now have a very favorable view of President Carter for the record. He's this bugaboo only on Ryan's Far Right. Most people see him as a good and decent man and think very well of him. Much of what happened on his watch was bad luck-the oil shocks of the 70s. In the 80s we saw oil prices go into a two decade bear market.
In fact W. is the most unpopular living President.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/george-bush-most-unpopular-president_n_1577651.html
It's possible that at some time in the future Bush will be seen in a better light. Even Herbert Hoover has his fans today-just see the Hoover Foundation.
Harry Truman had numbers similar to Bush when he left office in 1953. Today he's remembered as one of the "near great" Presidents if not one of the greats.
Still clearly we are no where near that point right now. Indeed, not only do most Americans still blame Bush, about half of Republicans still do.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/155177/Americans-Blame-Bush-Obama-Bad-Economy.aspx
"Don't be surprised if the Obama campaign mentions the name of George W. Bush at every opportunity, and don't be surprised if that strategy works," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "And the mention of Bush's name appears to prompt at least a few people to take a more positive view of their current financial situation."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/george-bush-most-unpopular-president_n_1577651.html
"I generally despise the counter-intuitive pundit take (pace TNR). But I think there’s a chance this renewed focus on the ‘4 years ago’ question could backfire on Team Romney. The best campaign posture for Romney is on the present. Because, let’s face it, 8+% unemployment sucks. I would go so far as to say that anything that gets the debate off the immediate present is a bad thing for Romney.
Context is Obama’s friend. We’re not doing great? Sure, but remember the catastrophe I got handed? Fine, we’re not where we should be. But look how far we’ve come."
"George W. Bush is still very unpopular and gets a high degree of blame for the economy, despite leaving office almost four years ago. The latest ABC/WaPo poll shows 54% blame President Bush for the country’s economic woes, compared to 32% for President Obama. Republicans, wisely, have been trying for some time to say Bush is old news, an excuse, etc."
"Casting the debate over where the country stands compared to four years ago also plays into the Obama camp’s push to say Romney is Bush redux. Again, good for Obama, bad for Romney. And lest we forget, Romney is (rightly) closely identified with Wall Street, ground zero of the calamity."
"Four years ago isn’t a perfect question for Obama. But then it’s not a perfect time for President Obama to have to run for reelection, is it? But it does set up all the key arguments the Obama campaign has tried to make. And Romney as Bush is something like the Holy Grail of campaign awesome to the folks running Obama’s campaign."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/4_years_ago_could_work_for_obama.php
I'm not sure why the author-Josh Marshall hates counter-intuitive punditry as it is often proves right;-but he's right about this. The key to this whole Are you better off today than you were four years? spiel, is that it's a gotcha question.
It wants to take away and context. We're supposed to forget that this was the worst crisis since the Depression, we're supposed to not notice that the U.S. has at least had a recovery here, unlike in Britain where they have practiced Romney-Ryan austerity to terrible effect.
Were not supposed to notice the strong private job creation we've seen since June 2009. We're supposed to give Mitch McConnell a pass for telling us that his number one priority was to make the President a one term President-note his first priority was not to create jobs or fix the economy.
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