In Texas "G2" was universally acclaimed for reaching across the aisles and forging workable compromises. His rise to national prominence was in large part fueled by the nice things Democrats in Texas said about him.

The first thing he did as President was invite the Democrat’s most powerful partisans, including Ted Kennedy, to the White House where he did his level best to build a relationship that would lead to productive partnerships.

The fact that Democrats spit in his eye because of their bitterness over the election results says more about Democrats than it does about "G2" in my opinion.

The vilification of GWB became a core Democrat strategy, and they stuck to it for eight years. It has proven to be very successful.

Don’t be surprised if Republicans return the favor.

Although I don’t think they will, because in general I believe Republicans are simply more civil than Democrats. Democrats are much more the "ends justifies the means" party imho. Republicans by and large still believe that means are judged on their own merit.

But as I said, eventually Republicans are likely to decide that whether they approve of the means or not, if it’s the only way to play the game, they’ll have to play it themselves.

Frankly I won’t lose a night’s sleep if Republicans turn the tables on the Obama administration. Part of me would say “it’s about time you idiots showed some balls.”

CosmicConservative’s last blog post..The Big Day is here!!!

I guess some of that passed down to the son. Though G2 didn’t seem to pick up on any of  his fathers knack for working well with others.

Bobby
http://www.idlewordship.com

I also have a question. Why do you think that McCain could not have duplicated what the Obama campaign had with MoveOn, etc.?

Sad way Obama won the election?  Can you elaborate?  I’ve never heard it put like that and I’d like to know where you’re coming from.

While McCain kept his promise, even though he didn’t have to and arguably would have done better not to. There’s justice in it though; McCain/Feingold, the law that made this dishonest, crooked campaign finance system possible, helped undo him in the money department. But one man kept his promise, the other didn’t.

But ah, in classic politician style, he pivoted like crazy and ran away from his base the moment he’d gotten the primary sewn up. He screwed ‘em on Iraq, and half of them thanked him for it. (Showing, maybe, they didn’t really give a damn about Iraq all along, just about hating Bush?)

The relentless way he trashed Hillary–then took on the positions he trashed her for? Classic. I’m sure some rabid Republican Clinton haters enjoyed that. Not me.

Or how his questionable and possibly corrupt past as a Chicago poll got portrayed as outrageous and out of bounds, but they dug through Sarah Palin’s garbage looking for the least little thing?

Oh, I could go on but why bother? As I say, politics is a nasty, nasty business and Obama is the quintessentially typical politician, capping it all off with creating the illusion that he isn’t one.

A nicer guy than Bill though. And gracious and funny in some ways. Empty suit brought into power on charisma and that’s all I see so far.

But ya know what? Let’s see what his first year or two brings. Maybe he’ll be great. I’d like to think so.

Yeah, I remember how the Democrats waited patiently for Bush to take office too…

CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Word association?

I figure he deserves at least 24 hours on the job before I offer up an opinion on his presidency…..

Hail to the Chief!

HB

p.s. However, I do strenuously oppose the Obama hype. If he DOES good things, I will absolutely not withhold credit. If he DOES crappy things (like try to impose Chicago machine Dem politics  at the National level), I will heartily criticize. I ain’t into cult of personalities.