Bush

Why is Barack Obama running against the record of George W. Bush?

Have you heard the Democrats' newest nickname for John McCain? It's "Bush 44," from a speech Joe Biden gave on Monday in Michigan. It's succinct; it's memorable; and it will convince exactly zero people to vote for Barack Obama. The biggest arrow in the Democrats' quiver is cut from an old, wooden meme that asks Americans to transfer their visceral hatred of President George W. Bush onto John McCain. If there's a way to link the Arizona senator to the lame duck president, you better believe the Democrats have thought of it. Voting record? Bush and McCain agree ninety percent of the time. Economic issues? Just "more of the same." Those adoring hugs between McCain and the president? They're the kicker of every Obama ad.

But so much for that. After four months of stagnating and ultimately drooping support for Barack Obama among the anti-Bush independents, it's time to concede that the strategy isn't working. More than half the country considers McCain a legitimate "agent of change," according to a September Gallup poll. In key blocs such as independents and Americans making more than $75,000, he's tied with Obama within the margin of error.

How can Americans consider McCain an agent of change when Democrats keep reminding them that he's just like President Bush? To amend a line from Obama's convention speech: It's not because Americans don't get it; it's because average American doesn't care.

In a speech on the eve of the Olympics, George W. Bush prodded China on human rights.

Well, sort of. That's what's in the news, but in reality Bush was (to use one of his father's words) "prudent" in his comments about human rights in China. His speech was released 18 hours before he actually gave it (probably with even more back-channel advance notice to the Chinese); it was delivered not in Beijing but in Bangkok; and it was followed by a string of events that spotlighted abuses in Burma rather than China. The Chinese responded with boilerplate about how the United States shouldn't interfere in China's internal affairs. Mission accomplished. On to the U.S.-China Olympics basketball matchup!

George W. Bush declared support for Ukraine's admission to NATO.

Mad props to the Decider for this one. I mean, who cares if only 33 percent of Ukrainians want to join? Who cares if France and Germany think admitting Ukraine would be destabilizing? Who cares if it riles the Russians (who needs them, anyway?), and pokes a finger in the eye of the man whose soul once seemed so "trustworthy"? What matters is that, unlike his father, the current president isn't serving the Ukrainians warmed-over Chicken Kiev -- the name given by columnist William Safire to Bush I's August 1991 speech urging the Ukrainians to go slow on independence.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice deepens a diplomatic rift by skipping Argentina on her trip to Latin America.

The "carnal relations" that former Argentine foreign minister Guido di Tella helped to inaugurate between his country and the United States in the 1990s have long since cooled. Condi can't be bothered to give new President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner a peck on the cheek, much less do the tango -- just as President Bush didn't drop by to see outgoing President Nestor Kirchner on his trip to the region last year. It's easy to blame the break-up on the Kirchners' anti-American rhetoric and their embrace of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But that ignores the ripple effect of the Bush administration's decision seven years ago to pull the plug on an International Monetary Fund rescue package for Argentina, prompting the country to default on its debts and paving the path to power for the Kirchners. MORE

Admiral William Fallon stepped down after a year at the head of U.S. Central Command.

The appointment of Fallon about a year ago set off alarms in many liberal minds. CENTCOM governs American military assets throughout the greater Middle East, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, and has traditionally been led by an Army or Marine general. Bringing in a Navy man looked like an effort to remind Tehran that not all of America's military assets were tied down in Iraq. Now his unusual decision to announce an early retirement is setting off alarm bells among liberals who worry that Bush may be planning to, as John McCain would put it, "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." MORE

Bush's foreign aid legacy

Institutions born of so-called "bipartisan efforts" should be judged guilty until proven innocent, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation is a bipartisan baby.  Four years ago, Congress created the MCC to revolutionize foreign aid by parceling it out countries that showed progress in political and economic reform.  In his State of the Union address last Monday, George W. Bush praised this hulking sloth of a bureaucracy, quite rightly, as one of the legacies of his administration. MORE

Thus endeth the crusade

Something very important happened last night. When President Bush delivered his State of the Union address, he never once mentioned the words "religious" or "religion" or "Muslim" or "Islamic" or "Islamist." MORE