The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Blame Bush, You Fools

Posted on | November 7, 2012 | 32 Comments

GAHANNA, Ohio
Just now waking up to the post-American era. A longtime reader e-mailed me this data from the Ohio exit polls: An outright majority of Ohio voters (51%-40% margin) consider Bush “more to blame for current economic problems” than the man who has been president for the past four years. And among the Bush-blamers, 87% voted for Obama, whereas 91% of the Obama-blamers voted for Romney. So that’s a 44%-36% differential right there.

One does not have to be an enthusiastic admirer of Bush’s economic policies to see this as evidence of how “brand damage” has hurt the Republican Party since the Bush-era peak 2002-04. This is understandably difficult for most Republicans to see (or admit), but the Democrats have ruthlessly exploited it.

Not ready to do a full round-up reaction yet, but I like this from The Lonely Conservative: “I Sure Hope Chris Christie Enjoyed That Call From Springsteen.”

Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Ohio, Polls, The Lonely Conservative

Comments

32 Responses to “Blame Bush, You Fools”

  1. CalCon10
    November 7th, 2012 @ 1:37 pm

    Actually, it WAS Bush’s fault: he never defended himself, and lies became “truth.”

    To be fair, no other Republican has ever defended him, either. Or called “bullshit!” on Obama.

    The short answer is, this is true because Republicans are cowards, which applies to a whole lot of things.

  2. keyboard jockey
    November 7th, 2012 @ 1:39 pm

    Allen West hasn’t concede, Other. he wrote that there are more votes to count. This is from his facebook wall.

    Allen West

    2 hours ago

    Our race is far from decided and there is no rush to declare an outcome. Ensuring a fair and accurate counting off all ballots is of the utmost importance. There are still tens of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted in Palm Beach County and potential provisional ballots across the district. Late last night Congressman West maintained a district wide lead of nearly 2000 votes until the S

    t. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections “recounted” thousands of early ballots. Following that “recount” Congressman West trailed by 2,400 votes. In addition, there were numerous other disturbing irregularities reported at polls across St. Lucie County including the doors to polling places being locked when the polls closed in direct violation of Florida law, thereby preventing the public from witnessing the procedures used to tabulate results. The St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office clearly ignored proper rules and procedures, and the scene at the Supervisor’s office last night could only be described as complete chaos. Given the hostility and demonstrated incompetence of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections, we believe it is critical that a full hand recount of the ballots take place in St. Lucie County. We will continue to fight to ensure every vote is counted properly and fairly, and accordingly we will pursue all legal means necessary.

  3. rosalie
    November 7th, 2012 @ 1:48 pm

    I am really glad to hear that.

  4. Cargosquid
    November 7th, 2012 @ 1:58 pm

    I blame the Republicans that stayed home KNOWING what was at stake. Period. If you know of any Republicans that didn’t vote for Romney, congratulate them. Their candidate won.

  5. Dianna Deeley
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:01 pm

    Not much to say. I’m angry that people wanted free stuff too much to think it through.

  6. G. Lewis
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:11 pm

    We are so, so, sooooo screwed

  7. Tito Munoz
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:12 pm

    Tito Munoz liked this on Facebook.

  8. Kerry Dar-Du
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:12 pm

    Kerry Dar-Du liked this on Facebook.

  9. Laree Lee
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:12 pm

    Laree Lee liked this on Facebook.

  10. Robbyahm
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:19 pm

    I still blame the establishment’s “electability” argument.

    ND-Rick Berg-LOST

    WI-Tommy Thompson-LOST

    FL-Connie Mack-LOST

    PA-Tom Smith-LOST

    OH-Josh Mandel-LOST

    VA-George Allen-LOST

    MT-Denny Rehberg-LOST

    NM-Heather Wilson-LOST

    The one race I truly do not regret ousting democrats best friend Dick Lugar but I truly am dissapointed about Richard Mourdock losing the seat. Im guessing sore loser syndrome there.

  11. CalCon10
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:23 pm

    What WERE they thinking?

    Romney is partly to blame, too. He insulted the base (contempt for Sarah Palin, Tea Parties, and his conservative Primary opponents).

    Still, hold your nose and vote. Many refused in ’08, seems like even more in ’12; as nasty as McCain was to the base, Romney was even nastier, because of the way he mistreated the thriving Tea Party community–who worked themselves to the bone despite the contempt.

  12. Dai Alanye
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:25 pm

    Putting aside issues we can do nothing about — Chris Christie, self-exalting Libertarians, Romney’s use of the prevent defense — I see the need for more political education to overcome the left-wing orientation of most of the media. Great steps have been made to advance conservatism and Constitutionalism, but just a leetle bit more is needed. The continuing demise of liberal newspapers and news magazines will make this easier.

    What we shouldn’t do is surrender strong points, like giving up on control of immigration or opposition to abortion, or accepting the concept of Fortress America. And we absolutely mustn’t give up on the Republican Party. Attempting to start a new party would be far more difficult than continuing the effort to convert the RINO-ish and stiffen the spineless.

    Assuming that Obama hasn’t converted to fiscal responsibility, our strongest move probably lies in opposition to spending and taxes, combined with a mantra of “Bush wasn’t the one who made things worse.”

    Opposition to immigration should stress the practical side of policy. Immigration — legal as well as illegal — ought to be suspended while the unemployment situation is so dreadful. Additionally, we should point out that the justification for immigration lies in its ultimate benefit to the U S not its standing as a welfare program for foreign citizens.

    Opposition to abortion should include the argument that children are needed to grow up into wage-earners and taxpayers who can help support their retired parents.

    And for those who’ve been asking: Yes, I will accept your nomination to high office.

  13. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:31 pm

    Basically, the Democrats lied about who caused the deficits and the fiscal crisis, which were both more a result of their own fiscal policies and social engineering (subprime lending, CRA, banking regs) than Bush’s policies. The media was complicit, and America is gullible and parasitic.

    This isn’t something that happened overnight, either. The dumbing down of the electorate has been a major goal of the left since the creation of the Department of Education as a “thank you” from Jimmy Carter to the teachers unions that elected him. It’s worked. We had had decades to stop it, and never did. America deserves what comes next.

    If the House tries to block Obama now, we will just lose the House in 2014 because the next big recession is coming fast and we will be blamed again, 100%. Negotiate for what we can get from Obama – which won’t be much – and give him what he wants so the Democrats OWN the results.

    And to the libertine and “Constitution Party” voters: you are dead to me. You are not allies of mine. You are every bit as much traitors as the Obama voters. Go to hell.

  14. John Galt
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:44 pm

    It is time to give up on concerning ourselves with what is best for the country. The people of this country voted for a candidate who ran a vicious and divisive campaign. They voted for a candidate who inherited a recession that would have been over in a year and prolonged it for 4 years and counting. They blamed the weak economy on George W. Bush (no longer valid, because recessions run their course in a year or 2 if the government does nothing) and on Republican efforts to stop the worst aspects of Obama.

    The solution now is to prove once and for all that the left’s economic policies don’t work. The House must refuse to compromise at all on preventing the tax increase. Either Obama and the Democrats must keep all of the current rates where they are or they must allow all of the rates to go up. The reason to do this is to ensure the maximum possible damage to the economy in 2013. We should also give Obama the policies he dreams of, but with a provision allowing them to expire in early 2017, so the next President doesn’t have to waste time repealing them. 4 years of a carbon tax ought to cause some serious damage to the economy. 4 years of card-check (with mandatory secret ballot decertification elections for all unionized workplaces if it is allowed to expire) ought to show just how much mischief unions can cause. 4 years of heavy taxes on the “wealthy” (I think 90% sounds about right) ought to cause job creators to flee the United States for a less hostile environment. We need to discredit the left. Then, we can win in 2016, turn the economy around and never have to worry about the country electing a leftist again in our lifetimes.

    Until we show the American people that socialism doesn’t work and capitalism does work, around 50% of the country will continue to believe that government can create prosperity. They blame Bush instead of seeing the cause and effect from the left’s policies. Our concern for the country cost us the election because many swing voters bought into Obama’s claims that our opposition to his policies caused the bad economy. We need to stop caring about doing what is best for the country in the short term and start doing what we have to do to permanently discredit the other side’s views on economics. That is in our nation’s long-term interest. When we’re done discrediting them, we can allow the policies to expire, repeal their other policies and even pass an amendment to the Constitution defaulting on the national debt and prohibiting the federal government from borrowing money in the future. Our priority should be nothing less than total victory over the left, not trying to limit the amount of damage Obama can cause.

  15. richard mcenroe
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:45 pm

    There are too many people who would rather be right than free.

  16. I Sure Hope Chris Christie Enjoyed That Call From Springsteen | The Lonely Conservative
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:45 pm

    […] candidate four years from now.Boy, I really hope Christie enjoyed that phone call.Update: Linked by The Other McCain – thanks.Tweetvaso linkgoogle_ad_client = "ca-pub-1395656889568144"; /* 300×250, created […]

  17. Chuck
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:52 pm

    Dear America,
    Fuck You.

  18. bugmenot2012
    November 7th, 2012 @ 3:37 pm

    You’re still so deep in denial. It’s great entertainment. Honestly, the Bush number is the most encouraging thing of all. A pleasant surprise to see that Americans have longer attention spans than the GOP snake-oil salesmen give them credit for.

  19. bugmenot2012
    November 7th, 2012 @ 3:38 pm

    What a silly dichotomy.

  20. McGehee
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:13 pm

    It’s a perfect dichotomy to describe silly people.

  21. McGehee
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:14 pm

    Right. Because “VOTE DEMOCRAT AND GET FREE STUFF!!!” is such a penetratingly complex argument.

  22. On the Encroaching Gloom: ‘We Are Permanently and Irretrievably Screwed’ : The Other McCain
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:18 pm

    […] 7: Blame Bush, You FoolsNov. 6: ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS HQ; UPDATE: OBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION; AMERICA HOPELESSLY DOOMEDNov. 6: […]

  23. Okay, Lesson Learned | Daily Pundit
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:49 pm

    […] Lesson Learned Posted on November 7, 2012 1:49 pm by Bill Quick Blame Bush, You Fools : The Other McCain One does not have to be an enthusiastic admirer of Bush’s economic policies to see this as […]

  24. Wombat_socho
    November 7th, 2012 @ 4:52 pm

    You don’t get sarcasm or irony, do you?

  25. jsn2
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:02 pm

    “Media bias aids Democratic candidates by about 8 to 10 percentage points in a typical election.”

    “Left Turn, How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind”, Tim Groseclose.

    An objective media means Romney wins. We need to shoot the biased “journalists” FIRST, then the lawyers.

  26. Finrod Felagund
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:09 pm

    Obamazombies don’t get much of anything.

  27. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:29 pm

    ‘The dumbing down of the electorate’ began way back with FDR treating Americans like infants with his Fireside Chats [perhaps it even goes back to TR].

  28. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:30 pm

    They get free phones!!!

  29. Wombat_socho
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:09 pm

    And a free whack with the banhammer!

  30. Quartermaster
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:51 pm

    What Adjoran is pushing is insanity. Utterly stupid. If you negotiate and pass something you own it. Just like MIttens and Romneycare. He complained that Romneycare wasn’t what he proposed, yet he signed the bill. When he signed it, he owned it and set the stage for his defeat this year.

    Sorry Adjoran, but what you are pushing is nothing but evil. You never compromise with evil. All you get is more GOP stoneless establishment types like Boehner, McConnell and MIttens.

  31. Quartermaster
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:53 pm

    We are well rid of rubbish like Lugar. If Boehner and McConnell don’t shape up, we need to find primary opponents for them as well.

  32. Bob Belvedere
    November 8th, 2012 @ 8:20 am

    You’re a generous fellow, Wombat-Socho.