Republican presidential candidates need to make a “clean break” from President George W. Bush and the U.S. government or they will lose in November 2008…
Interesting quote. Will the Republican presidential candidates listen? Newt Gingrich says they better and soon:
Gingrich: Republicans need “clean break” from Bush
By Steve Holland
Fri Sep 14, 1:03 PM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidates need to make a “clean break” from President George W. Bush and the U.S. government or they will lose in November 2008, a veteran Republican leader said on Friday.
“If you don’t represent real change, you just gave away the 2008 election,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who led the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994 and now is flirting with a White House run.
Gingrich cited the Iraq war, the failed federal response to Hurricane Katrina two years ago and the inability to control U.S. borders and illegal immigration as evidence of a need for a complete overhaul of the U.S. system of governing.
“Now that may or may not make the White House happy. But I think that’s the whole point about making a clean break,” Gingrich told a group of reporters over breakfast.
He added: “I believe for any Republican to win in 2008 they have to … offer a dramatic, bold change. If we nominate somebody who has not done that, they get to be the nominee but there is very, very little likelihood that they can win.”
Newt is speaking my kind language. Dramatic, bold change! But this current crop of Republican presidential candidates (with the minor exception of Ron Paul) seems incapable of presenting dramatic and bold change. Don’t they understand President Bush is unpopular? He isn’t well-liked by large segments of the American populace and has an abysmal approval rating. What advantage do they think they are getting by being on President Bush’s “good side”?
The Democratic presidential candidates are playing off of this unabashedly. They see the low approval ratings of President Bush and chart an opposite course at high velocity. Very simple. Makes much sense. And has them in the driver’s seat in winning the presidency of 2008. So what’s wrong with Giuliani, Thompson, Romney, McCain, etc? Can’t they follow the simple and sensible plan that Newt Gingrich has laid out? If this is about loyalty, I quote the late Donald T. Regan, former Chief Of Staff during the Reagan Administration:
You’ve got to give loyalty down, if you want loyalty up.
And President Bush as been throwing down crabapples to his fellow Republicans for awhile now.
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.