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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Presidential politics Right-wing media hysteria over Romney's failings

Posted by Max Brantley on Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 6:42 AM

GEORGE WHO? MIA in Republican campaign.

Another fine column by Gene Lyons this week, on the hyperventilating right-wing media as it gazes at the prospect of re-election of Barack Obama thanks to Mitt Romney's failings. That part's good, but so is Gene's riff on the man who isn't there.

Then there's Romney's even more damaging handicap: the all-too-real legacy of the Man Who Wasn't There: George W. Bush.

Purely as a thought experiment, how do you suppose the national political press would be playing the story if Bill Clinton had been persona non grata at the Democratic convention? If his name was never mentioned? If he failed to appear with President Obama at a single political rally?

Truthfully, we'd hear of nothing else. Yet Clinton left office a dozen years ago; Bush only four.

But Bush has gone down the memory hole, excised like one of those Soviet apparatchiks airbrushed out of ceremonial photos with Comrade Stalin. Winston Smith, contact the Ministry of Truth.

Polls, however, show that people haven't forgotten. Asked who's to blame for the nation's shaky economy, more than 2/3 of Americans in a 2012 Gallup poll found Bush largely responsible for digging the hole Obama hasn't yet dug the country out of.

Parsing a number of recent surveys, it looks as if pretty much everybody who's immune to the alien usurper version of Obama peddled to the GOP base is inclined to cut him some slack.

Tags: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, George Bush

        
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Obama at Morehouse

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During President Obama's recent speech to the black men who graduated from Morehouse College he uttered this amazing statement: "Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you've gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured — and they overcame them." /more/
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Remember Jon Hubbard, the former Republican legislator from Jonesboro whose views proved too extreme for voters in 2012, though not for the Republican Party of Arkansas? /more/
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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross has said he would have opposed the recent legislative effort to strip funding from Planned Parenthood for sex education and other health programs (not abortion). /more/
Bill Clinton tweets pic from Bush Library opening

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Bill Clinton. Heard of him? /more/
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More by Max Brantley

Family values: Health coverage for UAMS now and the future

I was copied on an e-mail being circulated at UAMS. It is building support for a resolution before the Academic Senate at UAMS for partner benefits in health insurance for the University of Arkansas System.
- by Max Brantley
- Mar 29, 2013
UPDATE: State college scholarship cuts run deep

Earlier, I mentioned an on-line petition by a father unhappy to learn recently his child might not receive the expected state aid to enroll next fall in the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.
- by Max Brantley
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Pulaski Tech offers new, non-credit cooking classes for adults, kids

Pulaski Tech has announced a new Summer Culinary Series, featuring non-credit summer cooking classes for the general public.
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Arkansas Blog

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Presidential politics Right-wing media hysteria over Romney's failings

Posted by Max Brantley on Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 6:42 AM

Speaking of...

Remember Jon Hubbard, the former Republican legislator from Jonesboro whose views proved too extreme for voters in 2012, though not for the Republican Party of Arkansas? /more/

Imboden high school graduation is uneventful after flap over gay speaker. /more/

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross has said he would have opposed the recent legislative effort to strip funding from Planned Parenthood for sex education and other health programs (not abortion). /more/

Bill Clinton. Heard of him? /more/

Comments (28)

More by Max Brantley

I was copied on an e-mail being circulated at UAMS. It is building support for a resolution before the Academic Senate at UAMS for partner benefits in health insurance for the University of Arkansas System.

Earlier, I mentioned an on-line petition by a father unhappy to learn recently his child might not receive the expected state aid to enroll next fall in the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.

Readers also liked…

Pulaski Tech has announced a new Summer Culinary Series, featuring non-credit summer cooking classes for the general public.

People who saved…

Event Calendar

Re: Anarchists at the gate: the rising Republicans of Arkansas

Re: Anarchists at the gate: the rising Republicans of Arkansas

Re: Anarchists at the gate: the rising Republicans of Arkansas

Gov. Mike Beebe seems to indicate a somewhat nuanced picture is emerging as facts are being gathered on how an Arkansas parolee, now a murder suspect, failed to be held behind bars despite repeat criminal charges and failure to appear for parole meetings.

Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, injured in a bicycle accident last week near his home, sent me an update this morning from his iPad.

Open line

Little Rock School Board member Dianne Curry, who is running for lieutenant governor, said that current Lieutenant Governor Mark Darr was "using the misery of the people, the residents of Mayflower, Arkansas, to garner feel good press."

Mike Huckabee, who left Arkansas, where he built the platform for his media success and which, incidentally, has an income tax, is putting down expensive roots in a beach development in Walton County, Fla., east of Destin — a $3 million home.

Public for the first time, the woman who married Damien Echols discusses their relationship

Fort Smith police and federal agents investigate Ron Fields, once one of Arkansas’s most distinguished prosecuting attorneys

Over the past three years, his Rogers Photo Archive in North Little Rock has been on a buying spree, purchasing the vast photo morgues of 11 great (and greatly cash-strapped) American newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, The Denver Post, the Boston Herald and The Detroit News.

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