The American Spectator

/p> p> SILVER LININGS br> Re: Lisa Fabrizio’s The Blame Game : /p> p>Lisa Fabrizio’s articulation of the firm grounds for allocating blame on the Democrats (“The Blame Game”) is good reading on the occasion of the death of Ann Richards. The most important action for which she should be remembered is that she switched the momentum of the 1988 campaign TOWARDS George H.W. Bush with her speech at the Democratic convention. Her “born with a silver foot in his mouth” line meant that the Republicans had psychological permission from the voters to mount a strong negative and successful campaign that would not be considered out of bounds since the Democrats had struck a first blow that was “over the top.” (The overconfident giggling speech by Ted Kennedy reinforced the permission.) So Ann Richards not only lost the governorship to George W. Bush, she helped elect George H.W. Bush to the U.S. presidency. br> — R.L.A. Schaefer br> Dubuque, Iowa /p>