Another thick, gray episode this Wednesday afternoon on California’s north coast — no direct sunshine at all so far, and apparently none is coming.
The marine layer is holding, and along with carrying a lot of moisture, seems stationary. Earlier this morning, if you didn’t know better, it really looked like we’d had some rain overnight — wrong!
As this literal-insane political cycle has barley begun, the crazy has already taken hold, from the huge, twisted mouth of The Donald, to the clowns’ casting call of candidates within the frenzied GOP (watch the Bad Lip Reading version of that first debate at Mediaite — hilarious), yet the biggest hole in this crazed ozone is the noted absence in any form or fashion of the last Republican to occupy the White House.
George W Bush is a plague of history — a name not spoken, especially in public.
(Illustration: ‘George W. Bush,’ by Tonio, found here).
And in US political history, way unusual.
Via TalkingPointsMemo this morning:
His disappearance from the national spotlight is a strange phenomenon in contemporary American politics.
Under normal circumstances, Bush would take his place along other ex-presidents as a national figurehead of some influence, especially with his brother as a presidential candidate.
Yet, his deafening silence is indicative of not only his disastrous administration, but the GOP’s attempt to erase him from the country’s memory.
This upcoming election marks the latest great GOP purge of history.
The disappearing Dubya isn’t a coincidence.
It’s part of a larger trend of former Republican presidential candidates being faded to black by the party whose mascot, ironically, is the elephant, an animal known for memory and longevity.
In contrast to this systematic erasure, the Democrats trots out its winners and losers every four years.
We still hear from Jesse Jackson, Al Gore and Bill Clinton — and John Kerry, of course, is a key part of the Obama administration. It’s presumed that when President Obama finishes his last day in office, he will also be a public figure working both internationally and within the party.
…
Unfortunately for the Republicans, Democrats and independents do have functioning memory cells.
They can recall two disastrous wars, mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina, the war profiteering of Vice President Dick Cheney, rampant Wall Street deregulation, and huge tax cuts for the rich that helped the national debt to balloon out of control in tandem with defense spending.
Unlike Reagan, there is no health reason for Dubya’s lack of public appearances.
In fact, he is still around and healthy as a horse, perhaps due to all his vacation time as president.
(Bush holds the title of all-time great presidential vacationer, clocking in at more than 400 days of R&R.)
…
If Reagan is an empty suit to be filled like exaggerated feats of heroism in a conservative piñata, Dubya is a dark political vortex that sucks away light and hope for another Republican president.
Financially, militarily, diplomatically, and by every managerial standard of leadership, Dubya is a presidential tragedy brought to you by conservative philosophers.
His two terms were devastating in every major category of judging a president.
There wasn’t one element of government that escaped being damaged or compromised by his policy.
By the time Bush left office, it was very easy to buy into the mythology that government doesn’t work, because it was many of his advisors who helped wreck the system so thoroughly that a sense of hopelessness pervaded.
Sadly, the great Dubya disappearance might be working.
In last year’s Gallup poll, George W. Bush had a positive rating for the first time in eight years.
Granted it was only 49 percent favorable, but it’s still better than when he left office.
And he owes the uptick in approval all to the fact that he has not been seen in six years.
A sad tale, but some people aren’t following the narrative…