New York Times Recommends Imaginative New Campaign Strategy

Blame Bush.

Recently, however, some key party figures have sought to resurrect Bush’s controversial legacy. “How does Mitt Romney differ from George Bush?” Neera Tanden, an Obama ally and the president of the Center for American Progress, asked on NBC’s Meet the Press earlier this month. Romney’s policies “really do double down on the policies of the Bush Administration,” Tanden argued, saying Romney proposes to slash taxes for the wealthy with no credible plan to reduce the deficit.

Days later, the Democratic National Committee threw its punch at W., responding to an anti-Obama ad from the pro-Republican PAC American Crossroads by noting the group’s ties to Bush’s former political fixer Karl Rove. The ad’s criticism of Obama’s economic policies, DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse told reporters, was “laughable coming from someone who bears responsibility for the problems that we’re facing today,” adding that “Romney’s [economic] plan is modeled after the same policies.” (On Friday, Woodhouse tweeted much the same point, saying Romney’s economic plan features “the same polices Bush/GOP followed which crashed our economy. Brilliant, huh?”)
(MORE: George Bush Is the Least Popular Living President)

Asked about the relevance of Bush’s record to the current campaign, Bill Burton, a former White House spokesman who now runs the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action, enthusiastically joined the chorus: “Romney wants to double down on the very policies that got us into this mess,” Burton said. “Romney’s vision is a triple dose of the same deficit-ballooning ideas that President Bush saddled our nation with. He would decimate Medicare and drive up our debt, all to cut taxes for the wealthy even more.”

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/06/11/resurrecting-w-why-george-bush-still-matters-in-2012/#ixzz1xaLNfGe4