Mitt Romney Defends The Bush Record

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) became the first speaker at CPAC to utter the words "President Bush" on Thursday when he offered a forceful defense of the previous administration.

Speaking to throngs of conservative onlookers, the likely 2012 presidential candidate accused the Obama White House of using its predecessor as a crutch and scapegoat. More to the point, he declared that the Bush record wasn't all that bad compared to the current president's.

"When it comes to shifting responsibility for failure, however, no one is a more frequent object of President Obama's reproach than President Bush," said Romney. "It's wearing so thin that even the late night shows make fun of it. I am convinced that history will judge President Bush far more kindly -- he pulled us from a deepening recession following the attack of 9-11, he overcame teachers unions to test school children and evaluate schools, he took down the Taliban, waged a war against the jihadists and was not afraid to call it what it is -- a war. And he kept us safe."

The crowd was quite pleased with the Bush defense and even more so when Romney praised former vice president Dick Cheney.

"I respect [Bush's] silence even in the face of the assaults on his record that come from this administration," said the Massachusetts Republican. "But at the same time, I also respect the loyalty and indefatigable defense of truth that comes from our 'I don't give a damn' Vice President Dick Cheney!"

But it says something to the legacy of the 43rd president that it's now newsworthy when he is defended in a die-hard conservative crowd. Indeed, if anything, Republicans have spent the last few months criticizing the Bush years as much as Obama -- casting it as a time of run-away spending and ideological laziness. But for the purposes of the speech, Romney looked the other way.

"I'm afraid that after all the finger-pointing is finished, it has become clear who is responsible for President Obama's lost year, the 10 percent unemployment year -- President Obama and his fellow Democrats, he said. "So when it comes to pinning blame, pin the tail on the donkeys."

Comments

[codycap]

03:03 PM on 02/21/2010

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/61583

“Saying that America is not better off than it was $1.8 trillion ago, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said President Obama should stop blaming his predecessor and the American people for high unemployment and growing deficit and failure of the Democratic health care overhaul proposal.”

True, 1.8 trillion dollars ago the Republicans had not taken power yet and we had a surplus. Of course we were better off.

Who should get the blame? Romney says the donkey. Isn’t that an idiotic statement on its face?

I know the tort statement is a lie and probably most everything he is spouting.

Why do Republicans abhor fact checking so much? Could it be fear that they might realize they have been dupes their whole life.

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."

When Republicans still believe the biggest lie of all, that they are the party of small government, how can you expect to disabuse them of all the other lies they believe in?

If the facts are telling us something that is in conflict with our beliefs, perhaps we need to adjust our beliefs. An intelligent citizen will, a Republican will not.

Facts do not matter to Republicans.

[Velocitor]

04:04 AM on 02/21/2010

Give it up, Mitt - neoconservatism and the Bush/Cheney legacy are joining Communism in the ashbin of history...

[MarsAmbassador]

08:08 PM on 02/19/2010

Nobody loves complete and utter revisionism more than Republicans.

"he pulled us from a deepening recession following the attack of 9-11"
- and the house of cards and mirrors he responded with ended up putting us in the worst recession this country has seen in about 80 years

"he overcame teachers unions to test school children and evaluate schools"
- No Child Left Behind is the biggest failure since I don't know when

"he took down the Taliban"
- No he didn't, they are stronger than ever and not only control most of Aghanistan, but most of Pakistan now. Bush dithered for 8 years. The West is on the verge of having to make a deal with them now, as a result.

"waged a war against the jihadists and was not afraid to call it what it is -- a war."
- It wasn't a war before Bush turned the dial up to 111. It was a small, fringe group of Al Qaeda members that had little political influence in the Middle East. Now their brand of extremism has spread rampantly across the region. Why? In response to our aggression, invasion and occupation of their sovereign lands! If any country attacked and occupied us, do you not think we'd respond in kind?

"And he kept us safe."
- How? By presiding over the biggest terrorist attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor? Oh right, the current Republican talking point is that it never happened on Bush's watch. I keep forgetting

[realpolitic]

05:52 PM on 02/19/2010

Romney said: " When it comes to shifting responsibility for failure, however, no one is a more frequent object of President Obama's reproach than President Bush,"

President Obama has taken on the responsibility of fixing all Bush myriad blunders included the financial sector implosion. It is not shifting responsibility, but putting the crux of the crisis where due. He went on to say history will judge Bush kindly. Yes, but only if history is out of its mind!

[Fremon]

05:49 PM on 02/19/2010

He has to defend the Bush record so he can say that things were better under Bush and that he will continue in that honorable tradition. Now he has to answer, what is that honorable position!

[nomadrdw]

05:39 PM on 02/19/2010

does the magic underwear make him see different realities as well?

[Fremon]

05:50 PM on 02/19/2010

Actually it is because he wears them too tight and they are affecting those realities.

[shryock]

03:50 PM on 02/19/2010

untwisting some of the simple statements made by mr.romney:

mr. bush "pulled us from a deepening recession following the attack of 9-11"
well, economists say that recession began in march of 2001, which if we want to blame first year presidents for first year problems, that makes that recession bush's recession. he caused it, so he should get credit for getting out of it? of course, that would have to mean that bush was also responsible for the recession that began in 2007 was ongoing in 2008 when obama was elected.

bush also "overcame teachers unions to test school children and evaluate schools"
testing is not learning.

bush "took down the Taliban" if he took them down, why are we still fighting against them?
bush "waged a war against the jihadists and was not afraid to call it what it is -- a war"
woulda been nice if he had been even halfway successful at his war. osama bin laden, who started this whole thing, is still at large. wonder if maybe instead of waging a war we had dedicated the same resources to actually catching the person responsible for 9/11 we might not be still at war in two countries?

"And he kept us safe." of course, his job, which he swore to do when he took office, was to keep the constitution safe. which he did not do.

[UtahLady]

03:22 PM on 02/19/2010

Once again Mitt shows that he is clueless and out of touch.

[RSKaz]

02:53 PM on 02/19/2010

Nice to see Mittens back to his daily self-destructive routine of, "Open mouth. Insert foot." Once a loser...

[CanUFeel2012]

02:31 PM on 02/19/2010

When cheney is finally in prison, we'll see if Mitt comes to visit...

[VOTER]

03:00 PM on 02/19/2010

Kudos!

And Fanned.

[DallasNE]

02:29 PM on 02/19/2010

"He kept us safe". Who the hell was President on 09/11/01?

" He pulled us from a deepening recession following the attack of 9-11" The recession ended in the fall of 2001. So much for the "deepening recession".

Going down the list shows false claim after false claim. Romney has learned well from the other Republicans. When their lips are moving they are lying. How sad.

[beautyontheinside]

02:10 PM on 02/19/2010

Love it- a loser defending a loser.
Mittens, you lost last time, what makes you think you'll win this time? Don't tge repubs have anyone better? You obviously haven't taken any time to contemplate your lot in life. How sad.

[Hoosierbrad]

01:47 PM on 02/19/2010

Somewhere in Massachusetts a village is missing its idiot.

[irishred]

01:44 PM on 02/19/2010

“When O'keefe and Cheney get standing ovations, I was surprised but should have expected that. When Reagan and the two bushes ran huge deficits, the republicans lost their reputations as defict hawks, their hypocrisy know no bounds. This is a link which VPN provided for me of republican offenders from 2001 to 2008. I have yet to find 2008 to 2010 but I am sure it would fill up another page. I know that there are democrats who committed offenses but when the hypocrital republicans who stand on family values, rule of law and deficit hawks, they are anything but.
http://www.republicanoffenders.com”

[guntotinganglion]

01:10 PM on 02/19/2010

"And he kept us safe." Tell it to the 3000 or so who died in the World Trade Centers. Romney is a miserable revisionist historian. Truth take the hindmost.