VA GOP Candidate Praises Bush: I Want His Economic Record

The legacy of George W. Bush has weighed heavily on the Republican Party, casting a large shadow over GOP candidates in the past two national elections.

But is that toxicity beginning to wane? For the first time in recent memory, a Republican candidate is actively embracing the tenure of George W. Bush, citing the economic growth up through 2006 as a template of governance he'd like to pursue.

On Saturday, former Virginia Attorney General and current gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell delivered the following remarks at the Boys State Convention in Lynchburg, Virginia.

"President Bush put in a ten-year tax-cut on everything from the death tax to capital gains tax and it was followed by an unprecedented period of economic recovery and economic growth," he said. "In fact, it almost overheated the economy through about 2006. So, I think that's the way you stimulate business. And that's the kind of governor that I'm going to be to reduce those impediments to entrepreneurship, to let small businesses grow and thrive and create some opportunity."

To be fair, it is hard to draw a larger trend from one snippet of one speech of one candidate for what is still considered a Republican state (though increasingly a political toss-up). Additionally, McDonnell has praised Bush in the past. But as the economic environment becomes increasingly owned by the Obama administration it will be curious to see not just how frequently Republicans whack the president on this front, but how willing they are to tie themselves to the early Bush years. Will McDonnell be the exception or the norm?

Comments

[amorvincitomnia]

How dellusion can one man be?

[plebeianswillrevolt]

Yum. ................ hate bush, love amorvincitomnia.

[BassMent]

Mr. McDonnell is playing fast and loose with the concept of "economic growth." What we saw was an unprecedented period of economic ACTIVITY, but the growth was temporary or imaginary, because none of the economic value attached to the activity was real. Taxpayer dollars were lavished on corporate welfare based on the myth of trickle-down economics, and Wall Street built an entire trillion-dollar industry on paper trading schemes that amounted to "If you promise to buy mine I'll promise to buy yours." What we ended up with in the end are the massive national debt, rising consumer costs and spiraling unemployment we see today.

The core of the problem was that we weren't building anything of value, we were just creating paper wealth. And we can't rightly blame all of that on the last eight years of bad government by the Bush administration. The movement of our economic model from regulated free-market to deregulated freewheeling casino began with Ronald Reagan and was aided and abetted by every president who came after him.

But the notion that we would want to repeat ANY of this EVER again strikes me as surreal. If we've learned ANYTHING in the last two years, it's that our model has long been deeply flawed, and that we need to get back to traditional American pursuits like building tangible goods of real value, and rewarding our nation's workforce with a realistic combination of adequate pay and reliable benefits.

[FanofPaine]

How the heck did I miss this? Wow, Bob. Hilarity is ensuing. This might be a funnier campaign than I initially thought.

Also, folks, give to Creigh Deeds!

[drumz]

Brain-dead

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Hey Virgina Do you agree with this man?

[mdn]

Yes, we in Virginia really hate taxes. That is also why our services are so limited. Public transportation outside the DC area, well, non existent; less money for education; infrastructure. But we do have prisons and we like to keep people in them for as long as possible.

I will be voting for Deeds.

[Grannysue]

He must have been on a comedy show!

[RoofinReality]

Well, taking a 200+ million surplus and turning it into a $500 million deficit is a $700 mil negative. And this guy wants to embrace that philosophy? Um, doesn't make sense, but we've seen people vote against what makes sense in the past. Let's hope they don't make that mistake again with Mr. McDonnell.

[Americanium]

McDonnell's head is so far up his rear end he thinks the whole world is brown,,,,,,,,,,,

[babyboomerorig]

Foolish man.....

[brt929]

This has got to sink his gubernatorial ambitions, even with hard core Republicans.

Hard core Republicans like to call Bush's economic record as "liberal." (They never take responsibility for their own.)

[Json]

He also wants Cheney's record on openness, Sanford's record on marital fidelity, Brownie's record on crisis management...

[LeawoodKansas]

Larry Craig's record on "don't ask, don't tell"

[AKWrongWinger]

Typical Southern Virginian

[MissingAmerica]

Delusional!

[tailgateshirts]

ahh so what happens when there are no more taxes to cut and no money for the gvt to operate?? yes yes, stimulate business until we have no gvt and businesses control us, thats the path to freedom.....

[Grunty1]

Talk about setting the bar to an all time low.