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

[Montana4change]

The Swine Flu is now a officially an epidemic.

What is going on with these clowns?! Pretty soon we're going to have to open up a sanitorium for the politically insane.

[Retrofuturistic]

This is why we really need a highly educated populace---- because people like this just plain lie.

[theubermensch]

Alright, yeah, and I also want his war record.

[AceInTheHole]

He's probably a big fan of Madoff too

[Wiseronenow]

Hold onto to your hat's folks! Another "Sanford" in the making:

McDonnell OPPOSED the acceptance of $125 million in federal stimulus funds to enable Virginia to extend unemployment benefits to Virginians who work part time or are in approved job training programs

[Lambpie]

You have GOT to be kidding me? There are a couple of things he seems to leave out of this. Jobs. Bush's record on jobs was just horrible. That's rather telling about how well Bush did in this area. Then there's that whole economy blowing sky high problem.

[winstonian22]

Could Bush's job record POSSIBLY be anywhere as close to how dismal Obama's is already in just six months?

[freethinkergirl]

Delusional Tr0ll.

[WhatTheHolyHeck]

Try cleaning out your closet some weekend. A really overstuffed, messy, horribly organized closet.

See if you can do it without making a bit of a mess first.

No, really. Try.

[LiberalBuzz]

Another Trog living in Opposite Land.

[rshrink]

Boy, this Dick Cheney is everywhere now.

[rshrink]

Boy, Dick Cheney is everywhere now.

[lynettema]

When GW put his economic policies in effect, they help only one element of the economy - the wealthy. The middle class and poor have know for years that the economy was tanking, but as long as GW could make the "numbers": look good, he was able to fool everyone until - he couldn't. And it all came tumbling down. He was just hoping against hope that the economy could hold on a few more months so he could blame it on the next president. As it turns out, the next president has to try to fix what GW broke.

[Siryn]

mo. ron!! lol. that'll be on ads soon...

[bayarea000]

down south. loaded with stupidity. watch this joker win!!!

[DavidDial]

He said WHAT???????

[LeftLeanWing]

Hey.Bob,

Why not have W. come at campaign for you with his ENORMOUS record ?

[rshrink]

Exactly, if Bush has a 26% favorable rating, maybe Bob can boost that clear up to, say 28 or maybe even 30!

[macohmz]

See what happens when you get all of your news from Fox. I think its hilarious that numbnuts here wants to be like Bush.

[dennissinned]

Maybe he prof itted considerably during the Bush years. Either way, he seems out of touch.

[karela]

Oh yeah, business boomed in the early Bush years of no regulation and no enforcement. And then in the late Bush years it all fell apart and took the country and the whole world down to it's knees. Then the country had to bail out big banks in order to prevent ourselves from suffering even more as a result of the Bush years and we all understand that we'll be paying for the Bush legacy for a long time to come. I hope they do run on Bush's legacy. We'll have something to say about just exactly what that legacy is. Apparently McDonnell would like to see Virginia, the country and the world go through this every few years on a fairly regular basis. I don't think so.

[DLazar1]

The opposite is true. You had government regulation forcing banks to give loans to people who could not afford them. Thus the "no qualifying loan" . . . the intro-low interest balloon loans . . . so people could get these loans without qualifying under the old rules (you know, down payments, actually doing home appraisals, etc.). This law was enacted by Bill Clinton in the Community Reinvestment Act. Much of these loans were underwrited by Fannie & Freddie (which we, the taxpayer bailed out - twice) and sadly, these bad loans were packaged and sold on the stock market to foreign banks, retirement funds, University Foundations, insurance companies . . etc. Thus the financial market crisis . . . The Bush Administration, to their credit, is on record with dire warnings over a dozen times in his last term in office. To his discredit, he did not put much political capital in really stopping it. He had already spent that on the "War on Terror" and war in Iraq.

[Lambpie]

Bunk. Anybody that says it's all the CRA and Fannie and Freddie has spent their life over on Fox.

[WhatTheHolyHeck]

You're not pointing at the debt that killed the system. The debt that killed the system was the super-risky, "creative" financing Greenspan commended mortgage bankers for providing. Government subsidized lending didn't create the problem of thousands upon thousands of mortgages valued at four to eight times what the borrowers could realistically manage.

It was wide-spread, predatory, totally unrecoverable lending that caused the problem, worstened by financial markets that had been temporarily buoyed by crazy optimism over financial instruments with zero value. Of course it was going to collapse, but it's lunacy to point to a small portion of the debt burden as the prime culprit and totally ignore the vast majority of the problem.

[cmilburn]

Perhaps you should read up on this. You might find several different people who disagree with your version. Like, um, oh, I don't know, perhaps a Nobel prize winning economist? Like I used to tell my kids: engage brain, open mouth.

[ThermoChemist]

[a] In the late '90s, Grahamm and McCain helped push through legislation that removed the Glas-Stegall bill that was created during the depression to separate investment banks, that mainly deal with institutional money, from commercial banks that mainly deal with individual investors.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act [11/1999] repealed the Glass-Steagall Act.

McCain voted FOR the bank laws that led to the current credit crisis. McCain's advisor (Gramm) WROTE the law.

NOT ONE Repub voted "FOR" Regulation­...!

[b] Senate Bill S.190 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-1900]

This legislation "could" have headed off the current financial crisis. The Bill would have potentially made the problem worse because it wouldn't have strengthened regulations; it was an attempt to privatize regulatory agencies and did nothing to address fraud and tighten oversight.

So, years ago, legislation "could" have been passed if the Repubs compromised on oversight / regulation (???)

[c] In 2001, the Bush administration had the Office of Comptroller of the Currency issue rules prohibiting states from regulating mortgage banks. A rule change opposed by ALL 50 states attorneys general.

The 2001 rule change is a cause of the problem.

"The regulation­...was...s­tripping states of authority they had been exercising for 35 years."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/18/news/banks.php

[d] Bush 2004 campaign promises to increase home ownership CONTRIBUTED to financial problems
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/23/102817/214/793/607383

[chgoblue]

Sure. His tax cuts in a time of war, constant push for deregulation and gutting the SEC and weakening their enforcement powers had nothing to do with the economic meltdown. By all means, don't let the facts get in the way of your argument.

[JessWonderin]

?????

Thank goodness we have the extra big internets tubes, but I think the googles will overflow into the ethernets pretty soon if the Repuiblicons continue pouring out this bovine excrement at this rate . . . .

Oh yea . . . bring ON that Bush prosperity . . . .