The Biggest Loser
As I hinted earlier, and as the WashPost confirms: the biggest loser of last night's GOP debates was President Bush:
We'll see how harsh they are when they get out and about, and have to talk to the (few-remaining) Bush-lovers face-to-face.
The Republican candidates offered repeated criticism of their Democratic opponents, but on issue after issue, they also shredded the president's performance over the past four years. Iraq? Badly mismanaged. Katrina? Bungled. Immigration? The wrong solution. Federal spending? Out of control.
The candidates struggled even to say they would welcome the president playing a role in their administrations should they win the White House in 2008. Former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, who served as secretary of health and human services during Bush's first term, offered the unkindest cut.
"I certainly would not send him to the United Nations," he said to laughter from the heavily Republican audience at Saint Anselm College.
The debate seemed to signal open season on the president's record, highlighting the reality that the candidates see the Bush legacy as a liability rather than an asset as they look toward a general election campaign in 2008.
We'll see how harsh they are when they get out and about, and have to talk to the (few-remaining) Bush-lovers face-to-face.
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