Well, it’s one thing to be found less popular than the incumbent while you’re running to win the White House. It’s another thing entirely if you’re found to be less popular than his predecessor, especially if that person happens to be George W. Bush.
A new Bloomberg poll has found that Mitt Romney is indeed less popular than Bush. Ouch. 49 percent of likely voters see Bush unfavorably while 46 percent see him favorably to the 50 percent who see Romney unfavorably and 43 percent who view him favorably. That means the man who’s been hailed as the “most unpopular living president” after two terms in office, where he led the financial landscape into ruin, put us into two wars, managed to ignore a whole city that was underwater after Katrina, and yes, had shoes thrown at him like he was in the midst of some biker mosh pit — this guy is more popular than the former governor of Massachusetts who’s yet to take office and make one single decision about this country.
You’ve just got to be some kind of overachieving electorate alienator of dynamic proportions to pull off something like that. Really this is some kind of remarkable feat. What’s next? Nixon polling neck and neck with Romney after the debates?
Pundits and the blog community are making jokes that Romney should trot out Bush for some time on the campaign trail despite the fact Bush gave his endorsement of Romney while getting into an elevator, and said this:
“I’m interested in politics. I’m a supporter of Mitt Romney,” he said in July. “I hope he does well. But you know, he can do well without me.”
We must be feeling feverish, because we can almost imagine Bush sounding pretty presidential while he said that, where over the last few weeks we’ve mostly heard Mitt Romney sounding like some sort of neophyte campaign rube whose awkward personality and even more worrisome verbiage sounds much like a Peanuts cartoon version of “ARGLE BARGLE! Want White House! Want More Cayman Islands Money Caves! Poor People Suck!” Sigh. What a mess. No wonder the Republicans are starting to call him defective, and are throwing their weight behind horrible man-monsters like Todd Akin in hopes of gaining the Senate if Mitt happens to just literally turn inside out and blow up in the next 40 days.
We suppose the GOP thinking is something like, “When your most recent “lost cause” (Bush) could in effect poll better than the candidate “lost cause” you’re stuck with, you try desperately to save the silver candelabra from the stinking, rotten, flood of inanity and defeat that’s coming, than leave the house with nothing.”
Sure, yes, it’s still a bit early, and Romney could really wow at the debates. Haha. Not even the Republicans think that, they’ve practically ceded the first debate to Obama because he’s “one of the most talented political communicators in modern history.” But, yet, and still, it ain’t over until it’s over — or until you bring out George Bush to drum up appeal.
Bush says to Mitt, “Call me, maybe.”
