Dems Running Against Bush, Again

2010 will be the third straight election cycle in which Democrats campaign against George W. Bush. Yet it’s Republicans who are said to be bereft of new ideas.

Greg Sargent recently wrote on The Washington Post’s “Plum Line” blog: “Democrats have lately been banging away harder than ever at the message that a vote for Republicans this fall is a vote for none other than George W. Bush.” Amazing—this new tack by the party in power could render 2010 the third straight election cycle in which Democrats run against George W. Bush. Yet it’s Republicans who are said to be bereft of ideas.

But maybe the real problem is that Democrats have too many ideas – unpopular ones?

So while Republicans are debating a rollout of a Contract with America style agenda in September, Democrats are now preparing for an idea-free attempt to tie their opposition to the Bush years.

President Obama himself recently said of Republicans at an Atlanta fundraiser, “(They) don't have a single idea that's different from George W. Bush's ideas. Not one. Instead, they're betting on amnesia." Well which is it, Mr. President? Do Republicans lack for ideas, or are they too infatuated with ideas deemed inadequate? The Democratic leadership knows that a campaign vague on specifics can be a successful one. Their aim now is to characterize their opponent not as lacking for ideas, but as promulgating ideas more unpopular than their own. When it comes to their most recent electoral victories, Democrats certainly aren’t betting on amnesia. A campaign against President Bush has proven a strategy that works—but that doesn’t make it an idea.