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  1. #1
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    GOP hopefuls mirror different aspects of W.

    TOMMY STEVENSON: GOP hopefuls mirror different aspects of W.
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    You don't hear President George W. Bush mentioned much on the campaign trail by the Republicans jockeying for the GOP nomination for president next year as they head into the first showdown in the Iowa caucuses Wednesday.

    Among the Democrats it's a different story, with each of the candidates vying for their party's nomination running vigorously against Bush and his policies of the last seven years.

    And once the nominees in both parties are decided, perhaps as early as February, you can bet the Democratic nominee will continue to try to hang Bush's record around the Republican nominee's neck, just as that GOP standard-bearer will continue the trend already established of distancing himself from the titular head of his party.

    But if you look at the Republican field, at least the top five with any hope of getting a nomination that seems increasingly up for grabs, you can see different facets of W. in each of them, as if they have broken him into five pieces and run with them.

    Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is running as the conservative part of Bush's "compassionate conservative" formulation in 2000 the establishment. That is, as the no-nonsense pro-business, "CEO President" Bush.

    Like former Texas Gov. Bush in 2000, Romney is touting his fiscal responsibility in running a large, complex state and is appealing to mainstream Republicans whose primary concerns are fiscal.

    Naturally, Romney is not implicitly linking his own record to Bush's, either as a governor or as potential President, since the national deficit has exploded in the last seven years, the gap between the rich and the rest of us has widened, the dollar has plunged and more and more economists are becoming uneasy about the very real prospect of a recession that could be looming just over the horizon.

    On the other hand, former Baptist preacher and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has claimed the "compassionate" mantle and with his quick wit and strong support among evangelicals has come seemingly out of nowhere to be a real contender for the nomination.

    His ascension has old line Republicans apoplectic, the pundits clucking that he can't win in the general election and is providing some real entertainment for the rest of us.

    Meanwhile, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain are each taking a piece of Bush's "war president" conceit.

    Giuliani became a national hero and "America's mayor" on 9/11 as he confidently strode through the rubble of the downed twin towers of the World Trade Center with a mask pressed to his face and his suit light gray with tragic dust.

    He showed real leadership when New York and the rest of America needed it most and when he launched his campaign for president he was the immediate Republican front-runner.

    Unfortunately, as Democratic candidate Sen, Joe Biden quipped, his message seemed limited entirely to "9/11, a noun and a vowel," and as concerns with another terrorist attack seem to be fading as worries about the economy escalate, Giuliani is now scrambling for a new rationale for his candidacy.

    To the detriment of his poll numbers, the Republican base also finally seems to be taking note of Giuliani's chaotic personal life and his pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-gun control record.

    McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war and also a true American hero, has taken up Bush's post-9/11 war mongering, calling for even more troops to be deployed to Iraq and with his impromptu singing of "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of an old Beach Boys song, giving pause to those who want desperately to get out of Iraq and certainly don't want to get into any more wars.

    Unfortunately for McCain, a majority of the county now thinks the Iraq war was a mistake and more than 60 percent of the voters want the war ended as quickly as possible. How McCain would overcome such numbers in the general election is beyond me.

    Finally, there is former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson. He is, of course, the Bush who goes to bed early and takes a lot of vacations. That's my favorite Bush.

    There are also two remaining Republicans running for the nomination -- Congressmen Ron Paul from Texas and Duncan Hunter from California -- but both have profiles that are almost anti-Bush, which former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Paul perhaps the most vociferous war critic in either party and Hunter a hard-liner on immigration, especially the policy Bush advocated earlier this year that Hunter helped shoot down.

    Wonder if their anemic poll numbers (although I still say watch out for Paul in Iowa, where the caucus system rewards the kind of passion Paul supporters have in abundance) reflect the continuing affection the fractured GOP base still has for each of the five facets of George W. Bush?

    Tommy Stevenson at tommy.stevenson@tuscaloosanews.com
    tuscaloosanews.com


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  2. #2
    Senior Member Rockfish's Avatar
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    Bush doesn't even hold a candle to Duncan Hunter. He does not emmulate Bush at all.



    DUNCAN HUNTER IS THE MAN!!
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