The Bush Conundrum

In the debate about whether Republican candidates need to distance themselves from George W. Bush in order to get elected, often overlooked is what exactly the popular media means by this distancing.

McCain and others can certainly point to a number of issues on which they have broken with Bush, but those are issues that matter mostly to conservatives.  On issues that matter to the left and the media (but I repeat myself), Bush's positions are largely the positions of his fellow partisans.

The big stories the media and the Democrats are pushing are the Iraq war (which is unpopular), the economy (which is in a down cycle), healthcare, and energy prices.  On all of these issues, McCain and most Republicans share President Bush's basic position.  Yes, McCain and some others were calling for Rumsfeld's head long before he was finally removed, but on the question of whether we should have gone at all, most Republicans are on the "wrong" side of the Iraq issue.

Republicans, including McCain, want to continue Bush's "failed" economic policies including free trade.  Republicans were against the expansion of S-CHIP beyond needy children.  These are unpopular positions on which the left will relentlessly bombard the electorate.

Where some Republicans might differ from Bush they are also "wrong".  Much of the conservative base is against "comprehensive immigration reform" and in favor of enforcement first, but Democrats flog us with this issue as racists and nativists.  Much of the base thinks Medicare Part-D was a fiscal abomination, but the program is popular among voters.

The biggest "winning" issue on which Republicans can break with Bush is the issue of earmark reform and governemnt waste.  McCain has wisely chosen to do this, but incumbent Republicans are often reluctant to give up their bridges to nowhere.

There are many topics on which Republicans can distance themselves from Bush, but they are too often the wrong issues.  To rightly criticize the competence of the Bush administration on issues such as Iraq and Katrina will only feed into the Democrats' arguments.  This is the conundrum facing Republicans this year.  Distancing one's self from President Bush is an extremely complicated exercise, and the calls to do so are often unfocused and cavalier.