Hot Air » Blog Archive » Bush, 2008: “There is no conservative movement”

From the cite:

Bush seemed perplexed. Latimer elaborated a bit more. Then Bush leaned forward, with a point to make.

“Let me tell you something,” the president said. “I whupped Gary Bauer’s ass in 2000. So take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement.”

Bush seemed to equate the conservative movement — the astonishing growth of conservative political strength that took place in the decades after Barry Goldwater’s disastrous defeat in 1964 — with the fortunes of Bauer, the evangelical Christian activist and former head of the Family Research Council whose 2000 presidential campaign went nowhere.

Now it was Latimer who looked perplexed. Bush tried to explain.

“Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say,” the president said, “but I redefined the Republican Party.”

Ed Morrissey notes:

So, when he said he redefined Republicans, that’s not just arrogance; it’s the truth, and we’re still paying for it.

I’ve long maintained that Bush was at least as big a disaster for the GOP as BJ Clinton was for the Dems. Actually, BJ did less damage. He lost the House, and in fact lost Congress for the first time in half a century, but his wooden would-be successor almost eked out a victory, and within four more years Bush had squandered control of Congress. And Bush’s administration was followed by a landslide for the Dems.

I no longer respect Bush’s foreign/war policy, either. We have gained nothing from Iraq, nor will we gain anything from Afghanistan. The American mission is not to impose democracy or, more accurately, liberty, on the world. Our mission is to be the shining city on the hill, the beacon of freedom that shows the rest of the world what it can become, if it wishes to do so.

Bush was a posterboy for everything that is wrong with the centrist, moderate, statist, corrupt GOP. Bush didn’t kill the conservative movement. But he did deadly damage to the GOP.

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