Republican Candidates abandon Bush

When I was watching the latest Republican debate on CNN last night I thought it was pathetic that these candidates fell over one another to distance themselves from the President. All of these candidates have more or less loyally stood by the president, despite his questionable competency, up until very recently. And now, rather suddenly they are more than willing to throw him under the bus to make themselves look more competent than he. Personally, it makes me very wary when people can change their loyalties so easily.

Following the lead of Peggy Noonan, conservatives and the Republican candidates are voicing stronger public opposition to Bush's policies, particularly on Iraq and immigration, than ever before. The candidates are obviously attempting to appeal to the 65% percent of Americans who no longer have faith in the President's ability to run the country.

Now that the they, in the long lead up to the 2008 Presidential election, are almost unanimously turning against Bush and his handling of the war, I think we are also seeing the beginnings of attempts to foist the blame or at least part of it onto the Democrats.

During the June 3, Democratic debate Hillary said: "This is George Bush's war. He is responsible for this war. He started the war. He mismanaged the war. He escalated the war. And he refuses to end the war."

McCain replied to this remark during last night's debate: "'When Senator Clinton says this is Mr. Bush's war, President Bush's war,' she is wrong, he said. 'When President Clinton was in power, I didn't say Bosnia was President Clinton's war,' the Arizona senator said. 'Presidents don't lose wars. Political parties don't lose wars. Nations lose wars,' he added." Earlier in the debate, he also harshly criticized the handling of the war saying: "I'm going to give you a little straight talk. This war was very badly mismanaged for a long time. And Americans have made great sacrifices, some of which were unnecessary because of this management of the war -- mismanagement of this conflict".

Seems like he's trying to spread the blame around. McCain said that nations lose wars not presidents or political parties and also that war was badly mismanaged without saying who exactly was responsible. Sounds like the groundwork is being laid to begin shifting some of the blame for the Iraq war onto the Democrats. The Republicans have trouble taking responsibility for their actions.

While I'm reluctant to say that the Democrats are more honest than the Republicans, I think that that the Democrats, at least those of the last 30 years or so, are less likely to lie about things like military intelligence, aid to hurricane victims, voting irregularities, etc. than the Republicans. The Republicans, since Bush No. 1 anyway, in general have no shame when it comes to spinning reality, no matter how badly they have behaved or lied, so that they will seem blameless or close to blameless whenever anything goes wrong.

Historically there is little doubt that Hillary's statement about Iraq war was true. It has been well documented that several Bush insiders including Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Perle, etc. had been urging for a return to Iraq for many years. It has also been well-documented in several books (Fiasco, Hubris, Cobra II, etc.) that Bush knowingly provided false and misleading evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

And while to an extent McCain does have a point in that Hillary was rather gung-ho in the lead up to war (outlined well by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker) it's hard to get around the now documented fact that Bush, Cheney, Tenet, etc. made every effort possible, including providing false evidence, to convince the public and Congress that Saddam Hussein had to be taken out no matter the cost. They used the fear and terror that resulted from 9/11 and a campaign of misinformation to convince the majority of the public that Saddam was responsible for 9/11.

It's probably true that Hillary's early position about the war had more to do with appealing to her constituents and the majority of the the public than it did with any deep conviction on her part one way or the other. But isn't that what the Republican Candidates are doing now? Only she never threw the leader of her party under a bus or supported his war even after it became obvious it was going horribly wrong. McCain last night spoke in favor of the current surge in Iraq: "I believe we have a strategy which can succeed ...."