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The Spectacle Blog
With Mitt Romney moving toward the Republican presidential nomination, the veepstakes are now in full bloom. Chris Christie is being scrutinized for his judicial picks. Others are being tested in the polls. It will therefore be interesting to see if there is any reaction of this interview with Marco Rubio.
Before CNN’s Candy Crowley tried to pin Rubio down on whether he’d accept a place on Romney’s ticket, she asked him how a President Romney would differ from President George W. Bush. “I haven’t gone through the comparison,” the Florida senator replied. “I think that presidents serve in different times with different challenges. And so I think that George W. Bush, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as president over eight years, facing a set of circumstances during those eight years that are different from the circumstances that a President Romney would face.”
“Fantastic” was also the adjective Rubio used to describe his friend Jeb Bush as a possible Romney running mate himself. Obviously this won’t be a big deal to parts of the Republican base, who like the Bushes. But much of the country — ranging from moderate swing voters to some Tea Party conservatives — would like the next administration to be different from George W. Bush’s.
View all comments (51) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/04/23/marco-rubio-and-the-fantastic
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Bob S| 4.23.12 @ 3:33PM
That's what Rubio is saying, that a Romney presidency would be different from a Bush presidency. Even if he can find some good things to say about Bush, he's saying Romney would be different given the circumstances.
W. James Antle III | 4.23.12 @ 4:02PM
I see your point, Bob. But don't you think a lot of people would say that the problems with the Bush administration were due to more than the circumstances? He could have even politely mentioned Romney's managerial record without directly criticizing Bush.
Bob S| 4.23.12 @ 5:05PM
In a race, in an presidency for that matter, where the President's signature defense is to blame Bush, should we really be enabling the President by continuing to crow on about how bad Bush was?
You can disagree with Rubio about how "fantastic" Bush was, fine. But the fact is that Rubio is saying Romney will be different. In this political atmosphere where the Bush name carries a stigma, saying that you are different from Bush, distancing yourself from Bush, is definitely not something you should be complaining about.
Do I think that a lot of people would say that the problems with the Bush administration were due to more than the circumstances? It sure seems that many people like to blame more than the circumstances, such as his intelligence (which is, as always, an argument originating from the left). But trying to associate Rubio with Bush is certainly not going to help, as the comments here demonstrate.
As corvair said, it's time for you to stop the petty sniping.
Quartermaster| 4.24.12 @ 7:52PM
Sorry, but both Dubya and Daddy were sorry Presidents. The truth may hurt, but we need to tell the truth. One thing that Obama needs is to have the trth ground in his face. Bush may have been sorry, but Obama is several orders of magnitude worse than either Dubya or his daddy.
Bob K.| 4.24.12 @ 12:48AM
Good Grief!
Are you paid to start controversy?
Jack in Wi.| 4.23.12 @ 10:04PM
2 pretty boys. Romney is Bush 4 and Rubio is Quale 2. No thank you. I hope there is a revolt at the convention. There isn't even a good guy running 3rd party.
Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 10:32PM
Vote for Virgil Goode. He used to be a bootlegger.
Mike| 4.23.12 @ 3:54PM
Any conservative who wants to see another Bush in office, needs t get a CAT scan asap.
Scott| 4.23.12 @ 3:59PM
Both Rubio and Bush are pro-amnesty.
BackToBasics| 4.23.12 @ 11:04PM
That's the truth. The gushy talk about Rubio is the RINO way of thinking they will be able to keep the borders wide open AND get the affection and votes from Hispanics in years to come. The RINO's still think they can build a left-center utopia.
They are still tin-earred and do NOT understand basic human selfishness. Hispanics will go mostly democrat because they democrats promise them the most handouts; it's that simple.
Tarr| 4.23.12 @ 4:28PM
A Marco Bushie/Willard administration does not inspire confidence.
corvair| 4.23.12 @ 4:47PM
Excuse me James, but where in your report did Rubio say the Romney administration would be like George W. Bush's?
Romney is going to be the nominee. It's time for you to stop the petty sniping!
bagittagit| 4.23.12 @ 5:06PM
Romney is Nixon...and Ford, Bush I, Dole, BushII, and McCain. As you may notice, there is but one name missing, and the Establishment is doing all it can to make sure that 'mistake' never happens again.
Michael| 4.23.12 @ 6:51PM
You prefer Carter, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and Obama.
Imissbuckley| 4.24.12 @ 12:12AM
Reagan 76, Reagan 80, Laxalt 84, Laxalt 88
A man can dream.
Bob K.| 4.24.12 @ 12:53AM
Laxalt? When did that laxative go off the market?
Imissbuckley| 4.24.12 @ 10:29AM
In the 88 race it was Bush vs. Dole. I' would've taken Laxalt or Jack Kemp for the matter over Bushie #1 or Mr. Viagra any day of the week.
Marco2| 4.23.12 @ 11:41PM
Is Warren Harding's the missing name? Please, don't keep us guessing!
C Bowen | 4.23.12 @ 5:20PM
'Amnesty' Rubio is a certain loser for Romney, in addition to Rubio's cowardly siding with the Sharpton mobs and the Left against Zimmerman.
The American Hitman| 4.23.12 @ 6:11PM
The Bush Republicans...bringing left and right together since 1988.
Sam Green| 4.23.12 @ 6:29PM
Hi Clint!
Michael| 4.23.12 @ 6:51PM
Hi Clint!
Occam's Tool| 4.24.12 @ 5:29PM
Hi, Clint!
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.23.12 @ 6:49PM
I agree with Mark Rubio.
1. Medicare without "medicine" is stupid. Medicine is MUCH cheaper than hospital stays for the older folks.
2. No Child Left Behind was a noble experiment...that got gobbed down in bureaucracy, oops.
Finally, Dubyah set the terrorists back on their heels in their own back yards.
...pretty fantastic overall.
PCP Smoker| 4.23.12 @ 10:02PM
You are fucking moron.
Dai Alanye | 4.24.12 @ 3:01PM
PCP should either learn the difference between argument and invective or be banned from this site. There's no excuse for this type of speech.
Quartermaster| 4.24.12 @ 7:55PM
I'm sure he was looking in the mirror when he said that. So, he should be congratulated for his honesty.
Mike W| 4.23.12 @ 7:09PM
"Fantastic Bushes" - what a goon. I have to question his credibility if he thinks W was fantastic.
Spo101 | 4.23.12 @ 7:42PM
Oh oH, here we go again, Marco Rubio telling his constituents how fantastic George W. Bush was. That craziness might play in Florida, South Carolina, Texas or Arizona because those ignorant *****’s fall for that kind of BS all the time. But for the rest of Americans we need an explanation of why Rubio would lie to his people. When sane people think of Bush/Cheney they know better. Is Jeb running for anything?
National Alliance on Mental Illness in Florida
Of course Americans already KNOW Republicans/Conservatives have a problem with ethics, responsibility, accountability… BUT I feel LOW GRADE THOUGHT PROCESSES are the REAL topic here. Just LISTEN to Marco Rubio or Allen West
Republicans seem to be suffering from SEVERE superiority complexes, odd paranoia, guilt and identity issues. According to anti-gay activists George Rekers and James Dobson from the so-called Family Research Council… The Male Model/Escort industry has a great future in Republican Party politics… lol
GOP - Gay Old Party
At first I thought all these pretty-boy Scott Brown, Bob McDonnell, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Young Guns types were getting elected because frustrated Republican women were voting for them. They thought their men were constipated/impotent but as it turns out these poor sex starved women weren’t getting any because Republican Men are all as GAY as Larry Craig, Bill Cunningham, Marco Rubio, Mark Foley, Glenn Beck, Allen West and Ted Haggard… and enthusiastically VOTE for the pretty boys too!
All the Gay Republicans are throwing a party and want to know if they can hire those Male Stripers the silver spoon, trust fund babies were talking about. I think they called them “The Young Guns”. Even Joe Scarborough confessed to his “Man Crush” in 2010. But other than Marco “Primrose” Rubio, George W. Bush isn’t getting much of that man love, is he? (lol)
Remember Bush?
I know it’s a stretch… but for arguments sake lets say Americans can conveniently forget about the 5000+ dead, 30,000+ wounded US soldiers and only GOD knows how many Iraqis and Afghanis. Forget that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove/Wolfowitz took the good will of the world after 9/11 and turned it to HATE and mistrust.
How these chicken hawks sent our troops into battle WITHOUT PROPER ARMOR or any clear cut plan beyond George W. declaring “Mission Accomplished”. Never mind military strategists didn’t think it was a good idea to get rid of the ONE dictator (Saddam Hussein) in the Middle East that had an IRON BOOT on the throat of fanatical Islam. Remember… the terrorist, Osama bin Lunatic, degenerates that caused 9/11?
Forget IRAN? Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove and Morning Joe can have victory in Iraq when they can stroll through Iraq WITHOUT an armored division and air support to keep them from harm… y’know like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done several times since the USA got rid of Saddam.
FORGET the TRILLIONS of dollars wasted in Iraq or the 20 BILLION dollars missing or the 175,000 weapons misplaced or all the arms dealers and WAR profiteers that milked our national treasury. FORGET about all the Constitutional VIOLATIONS, domestic spying, bold lying, Justice Dept. bias, Walter Reed, Abu Ghraib, soldiers getting electrocuted in showers due to shoddy military contractor work…
YEAaaaaa… once again, imagine we live in a country where almost half the population is dumber than a tree full of monkeys. These citizens are so damn ignorant they allowed some of the worst criminals in history bend them over and #*~/ them in the *** for 8 years. Even worse these numbskulls LIKED IT so much they want MORE!
MORE of the waste, fraud, abuse, lies, incompetence, scandal, fear mongering, sexual deviancy, corruption, off-shore tax evasion, media consolidation, arms dealing, reckless economics, deregulation, war profiteering, Bush/Paulson corporate welfare, Constitutional violations and a Corporate Crime Wave of EPIC proportions.
IF THE READER CAN POSSIBLY FORGET ALL THAT… then the WORST thing the Bush Administration DID was NOT raise taxes to pay for the WARS, tax cuts for the rich and Medicare Part iDiot. You want to hear about Fiscal Irresponsibility GRANDE?
Instead, Bush/Cheney borrowed from COMMUNIST China and Saudi Arabia (at outrageous interest rates) AND put OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN under the thumb of MASSIVE FOREIGN DEBT!
If there’s ANYONE out there who can explain away Bush/Cheney Administration CRIMES please reply because I’m NOT GETTING IT! Funny how we never heard any complaints from the so-called Tea Party crowd while Bush/Cheney were spending our national wealth like a crack HO with a credit card. I am somebody who fights back against the true enemies of FREEDOM consciousmc.blogspot.com
PCP Smoker| 4.23.12 @ 10:01PM
Learn to submit a comment, you motherfucking moron.
Dai Alanye | 4.24.12 @ 3:00PM
PCP should either learn the difference between argument and invective or be banned from this site.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.24.12 @ 12:29PM
SPO,
you are very longwinded.
You and PCP are also knee-high to a moron.
Occam's Tool| 4.24.12 @ 5:31PM
PCP: what's twisted the knickers today? Normally, you aren't like this. I suspect a sabotage.
Spo101 | 4.23.12 @ 7:42PM
Oh oH, here we go again, Marco Rubio telling his constituents how fantastic George W. Bush was. That craziness might play in Florida, South Carolina, Texas or Arizona because those ignorant *****’s fall for that kind of BS all the time. But for the rest of Americans we need an explanation of why Rubio would lie to his people. When sane people think of Bush/Cheney they know better. Is Jeb running for anything?
National Alliance on Mental Illness in Florida
Of course Americans already KNOW Republicans/Conservatives have a problem with ethics, responsibility, accountability… BUT I feel LOW GRADE THOUGHT PROCESSES are the REAL topic here. Just LISTEN to Marco Rubio or Allen West
Republicans seem to be suffering from SEVERE superiority complexes, odd paranoia, guilt and identity issues. According to anti-gay activists George Rekers and James Dobson from the so-called Family Research Council… The Male Model/Escort industry has a great future in Republican Party politics… lol
GOP - Gay Old Party
At first I thought all these pretty-boy Scott Brown, Bob McDonnell, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Young Guns types were getting elected because frustrated Republican women were voting for them. They thought their men were constipated/impotent but as it turns out these poor sex starved women weren’t getting any because Republican Men are all as GAY as Larry Craig, Bill Cunningham, Marco Rubio, Mark Foley, Glenn Beck, Allen West and Ted Haggard… and enthusiastically VOTE for the pretty boys too!
All the Gay Republicans are throwing a party and want to know if they can hire those Male Stripers the silver spoon, trust fund babies were talking about. I think they called them “The Young Guns”. Even Joe Scarborough confessed to his “Man Crush” in 2010. But other than Marco “Primrose” Rubio, George W. Bush isn’t getting much of that man love, is he? (lol)
Remember Bush?
I know it’s a stretch… but for arguments sake lets say Americans can conveniently forget about the 5000+ dead, 30,000+ wounded US soldiers and only GOD knows how many Iraqis and Afghanis. Forget that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove/Wolfowitz took the good will of the world after 9/11 and turned it to HATE and mistrust.
How these chicken hawks sent our troops into battle WITHOUT PROPER ARMOR or any clear cut plan beyond George W. declaring “Mission Accomplished”. Never mind military strategists didn’t think it was a good idea to get rid of the ONE dictator (Saddam Hussein) in the Middle East that had an IRON BOOT on the throat of fanatical Islam. Remember… the terrorist, Osama bin Lunatic, degenerates that caused 9/11?
Forget IRAN? Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove and Morning Joe can have victory in Iraq when they can stroll through Iraq WITHOUT an armored division and air support to keep them from harm… y’know like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done several times since the USA got rid of Saddam.
FORGET the TRILLIONS of dollars wasted in Iraq or the 20 BILLION dollars missing or the 175,000 weapons misplaced or all the arms dealers and WAR profiteers that milked our national treasury. FORGET about all the Constitutional VIOLATIONS, domestic spying, bold lying, Justice Dept. bias, Walter Reed, Abu Ghraib, soldiers getting electrocuted in showers due to shoddy military contractor work…
YEAaaaaa… once again, imagine we live in a country where almost half the population is dumber than a tree full of monkeys. These citizens are so damn ignorant they allowed some of the worst criminals in history bend them over and #*~/ them in the *** for 8 years. Even worse these numbskulls LIKED IT so much they want MORE!
MORE of the waste, fraud, abuse, lies, incompetence, scandal, fear mongering, sexual deviancy, corruption, off-shore tax evasion, media consolidation, arms dealing, reckless economics, deregulation, war profiteering, Bush/Paulson corporate welfare, Constitutional violations and a Corporate Crime Wave of EPIC proportions.
IF THE READER CAN POSSIBLY FORGET ALL THAT… then the WORST thing the Bush Administration DID was NOT raise taxes to pay for the WARS, tax cuts for the rich and Medicare Part iDiot. You want to hear about Fiscal Irresponsibility GRANDE?
Instead, Bush/Cheney borrowed from COMMUNIST China and Saudi Arabia (at outrageous interest rates) AND put OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN under the thumb of MASSIVE FOREIGN DEBT!
If there’s ANYONE out there who can explain away Bush/Cheney Administration CRIMES please reply because I’m NOT GETTING IT! Funny how we never heard any complaints from the so-called Tea Party crowd while Bush/Cheney were spending our national wealth like a crack HO with a credit card. I am somebody who fights back against the true enemies of FREEDOM consciousmc.blogspot.com
JmsA| 4.23.12 @ 8:14PM
Spo101, I believe you might be lost; turn left to get to Huffpo. Good luck and thank you for visiting.
William R| 4.23.12 @ 8:19PM
Rubio is a Neocon lightweight.
Nite| 4.23.12 @ 8:33PM
Rubio served several years in the Florida House and was the youngest ever Speaker of the House. He is hardly a lightweight.
William R| 4.23.12 @ 9:58PM
Anyone who thinks George Bush was a great President is a lightweight. End of story
Occam's Tool| 4.24.12 @ 5:32PM
Good old William. Reliable as diarrhea following a Mexican meal of taco meat left out in the sun for 2 weeks. And about as useful.
Quartermaster| 4.24.12 @ 7:57PM
Alas, Occam, neither Bush was a great President. And anyone that disagrees with that assessment wasn't paying much attention and so must be regarded as a lightweight, as both Bushes were.
Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 10:36PM
NEOCON!! NEOCON!! NEOCON!!
PCP Smoker| 4.23.12 @ 10:00PM
Romney's 012 term WILL BE W's 3rd term. Get ready to dust off the "compassionate" label again, and open the spending spigots. After all, we've got some compassionate "fixing" to do.
Marco2| 4.23.12 @ 11:47PM
Fabulous, there's plenty of "fixing" to be done. BTW, didn't the Taft wing of the GOP die in 1952? You'd never know it when reading some of this head-in-the-sand commentary.
Imissbuckley| 4.24.12 @ 12:06AM
It evolved into the Goldwater-Reagan wing, which will be the wing of the party that filibusters any of Romney's "compassionate" work in the Senate.
I'll vote for Romney, but I'll do it holding my nose.
Bill| 4.24.12 @ 11:59AM
Rubio's DREAM Act legislation puzzels me.
Quartermaster| 4.24.12 @ 7:59PM
Given what Rubio is, it shouldn't puzzle you a bit. Rubio is a RINO that fooled the TEA Party types in his state. It's just another betrayal.
Don Webb| 4.24.12 @ 9:38PM
Rubio is not eligible to be president or vp. His parents were not citizens when he was born. Either
is Obama.But you noticed not even Fox will cover that fact! Total blackout on that and the Arpaio ivestigation!
Don Webb| 4.24.12 @ 9:40PM
Rubio's heritage is Cuban. His loyalties are divided. Just like Obama's. That's why founders required both parents to be citizens. Rubio is not eligible to be VP
Don Webb| 4.24.12 @ 9:33PM
Marco Rubio is a good Senator except for his Deam Act Amnesty bill. He is also not eligible to be President. He is not natural born. His parents were not citizens when he was born. Same with Obama! Can we please follow the Constitution??