Let's Not Pretend that Bush Won in 2000 - by BooMan

[kpete]

Let's Not Pretend that Bush Won in 2000
by BooMan
Fri Feb 22nd, 2013 at 02:37:44 PM EST

Michael Gerson acts like President Bush won the 2000 election. It may be a permissible error if you are talking horseshoes and hand grenades, but he's trying to use Bush's campaign as some kind of template for GOP revival. He explicitly compares the 2000 rebranding effort of Bush to the 1992 rebranding effort of Bill Clinton. Insofar as Clinton represented a new brand for the Democratic Party, that is because he was part of a new institution (the Democratic Leadership Council) that had different ideas. His campaign's focus on the struggling economy was strictly tactical (we were recovering from a recession). On substance, Clinton bucked the labor unions in favor of free trade. He espoused more business-friendly policies as part of a overall strategy to reach parity in fundraising again. But he also led with obviously progressive priorities like health care and gay rights in the military and gun control that actually drove a big wedge between the Democratic Party and a big part of Clinton's winning coalition (much of which is now solidly in the Republican camp).

Clinton had some help from Ross Perot, too. It will never be completely resolved whether Clinton would have won in a straight-up contest against Poppy Bush. I doubt very much that he would have won states like Georgia or Montana in a one-on-one match. But, I'll grant that Clinton rebranded the party. It's just that he did it substantively.

Dubya distinguished himself from the cavemen who had impeached Bill Clinton by embracing a federal role in education and, eventually, providing a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. But his ridiculous campaign against Gore was only good enough for him to lose, and that isn't a prescription for revival.

.........................

Anyway, Bush didn't win.

MORE:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/2/22/143744/505
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-republican-party-needs-a-shakeup/2013/02/21/d89d9d82-7baa-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html

[BWCC]

1. I've heard it both ways

...but does it really matter? We still ended with 8 years of the worst President in history. Al Gore should have wiped the floor with him too..

[Octafish]

2. SCOTUS went for Smirko McCokespoon 5-4

And the rest is BFEE history, no matter what the truth or its deniers like Gerson say.

[joeybee12]

3. Yeah, it was compl;etely resolved...Harvard modules which are always right...

Clinton would have won in a two-man race.

[Initech]

4. George Bush did not win the presidency. The Supreme Court gave it to him.

The damage that this man did will take decades to undo.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Agreed

We are not done paying yet.............


BTW where are those TPS reports LOL!

[Greybnk48]

6. That's exactly what happened. I will never forget

hearing on my car radio that they ordered the recount stopped. Months later we learned that Al Gore had actually won Florida and the election.