Conservative Columnist Jennifer Rubin Takes Desperation to a New Level

Desperate Candidates Call for Desperate Columns

There are two main themes shaping up with respect to the 2012 Presidential race.  One is that the Republican field is lacking in Presidential timber. The second is that this deficiency in qualifications only partly matters, that the 2012 will largely be a referendum on Mr. Obama.

To further enhance the qualities of the candidates, Conservatives and their supporters in the press will have to convert  non-existent virtues into existent ones.  Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post is one of the first to take a shot at it.  Her is her revision of the Bush persona.

The knock on George W. Bush that he was an anti-intellectual and uninterested in policy turned out to be dead wrong. He was an avid history reader and championed (unsuccessfully in some cases) detailed policies on stem cell research, Medicare Part D, education, immigration reform, Social Security and tax reform. And he went outside the Pentagon bureaucracy to redesign the Iraq war policy and implement the surge.

Really?  Well Republicans, be sure and bring all of this up in the next election.  Sure would help your cause.

Ms. Rubin also tries to prop up the accomplishments of Michelle Bachmann

Bachmann is beginning to highlight specific legislative accomplishments. A spokesman e-mails me, “She’s been an unwavering opponent of big-government liberalism and has stood firm on cutting spending, cutting taxes, and holding the line on life and traditional marriage. . . .. The very first bill Rep. Bachmann authored in Congress (in her first month in office in 2007) was a meaningful health-care reform bill (that garnered 64 co-sponsors), and one of the bills she most recently authored would pave the way to dismantle Obamacare (95 co-sponsors).”

Anyone see any accomplishments in there, anyone, really, just one?  Nope, none.

And so on to Mr. Rick Santorum

Likewise, Santorum is pounding home the message that, as the only former lawmaker in the race with a list of bipartisan policy achievements (e,g, welfare reform, the partial-birth abortion ban, Iran sanctions), he has a leg up on his opponents and is uniquely suited to face the challenges we face

Ms. Rubin conveniently omits the fact that the reason Mr. Santorum is “former” legislator is that he was soundly defeated for re-election.

So there you have it, the first in what will be many efforts to paint Presidential sheen on a group of candidates who lack it.  What’s next, calling Mr. Gingrich a person of “great ideas”?

Mr. Rubin’s column is titled, “Don’t Count Out the Rest of the GOP Field Yet”, which is good advice.  Everyone can do that later when the dullness of winter sets in and we all need something to occupy our tme.