Sabato’s Crystal Ball: ANOTHER PART OF THE BUSH LEGACY IN QUESTION?
During his first term, George W. Bush was arguably the most successful party-building president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Like FDR, who fashioned a Democratic coalition that dominated American politics for a generation, Bush during his first four years in office helped the Republicans post gains in Congress and around the country that many in the party viewed as the cornerstone for a similarly long-lived GOP majority.
But during his seemingly ill-starred second term, the Republicans have hemorrhaged seats up and down the ballot–losing their majorities in both houses of Congress, dropping hundreds of seats in the state legislatures, and giving up enough governorships to leave the GOP with less than half of them for the first time in more than a decade.
As a result, with barely a year to go in his administration, that part of Bush’s legacy–as a party builder par excellence–remains very much in question.
Over the course of his presidency, Bush has thrown himself into the role of party builder with gusto that few, if any, of his predecessors have matched. He has helped the GOP and its candidates raise tens of millions of dollars and he has stumped extensively for Republican candidates who tapped the White House for assistance.
Boosted by high approval ratings through much of his first term and with the Democrats on the defensive, Bush’s efforts to help his party initially paid off. In 2002, he became the first president since FDR in 1934 to see his party gain both House and Senate seats in his first midterm election.
In 2004, Republicans added more seats to their congressional majorities with Bush leading the GOP ticket. The Republican Senate total swelled to 55 seats and the GOP House total to 232, the highest post-election total for the party on the House side in nearly 60 years and equaling the GOP’s highest post-election total on the Senate side since the eve of the Great Depression in the late 1920s. A nation split 50-50 after the 2000 election looked after 2004 as though it was definitely leaning Republican.
8 Responses to “Sabato’s Crystal Ball: ANOTHER PART OF THE BUSH LEGACY IN QUESTION?”
[...] The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, ori… added an interesting post on Sabato’s Crystal Ball: ANOTHER PART OF THE BUSH LEGACY IN QUESTION?Here’s a small excerpt [...]
Other than Iraq, he won’t have a legacy by 2008. It is merely coincidental that he was President when we were attacked by terrorists in September 2001. His most delusional and rabid enemies will continue to blame him for everything that possibly could be considered bad or wrong from now until then (and maybe afterward, too), but among normal people he will largely be ignored or forgotten in the years to come.
[...] The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, ori… added an interesting post today on Sabato’s Crystal Ball: ANOTHER PART OF THE BUSH LEGACY IN QUESTION?Here’s a small reading [...]
[...] Mine Sabato’s Crystal Ball: ANOTHER PART OF THE BUSH LEGACY IN QUESTION? » This Summary is from an article posted at The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news [...]
President Bush has run up a large deficit that someone else is going to be stuck paying off.
That’s his legacy, beyond Iraq.
The deficit isn’t a one-time event attributable to him. Deficits have occurred (and federal debt has existed) for decades now.
Perhaps you’d actually like to defend the spending of President Bush and the Republican Congress?
That does not follow logically from what I wrote. And no, I do not wish to defend the spending, which makes Bush’s recent, very late vetoes look hypocritical.
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Overall, my view is that the US public will look back at Dubya with more disappointment, when not with more disgust, than they viewed his father: Yawns and frowns.