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Republican campaign chairs defend George W. Bush 1. The chairmen of the two Republican campaign committees defended the presidency of George W. Bush in television appearances over the weekend, a preview of the GOP's planned pushback against expected Democratic attacks on the last president. "People had jobs when Republicans were not only in charge but George Bush was there," said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press". John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program that "Bush's stock has gone up a lot since he left office," adding: "I think a lot people are looking back with more fondness on President Bush's administration, and I think history will treat him well." The rhetoric from Cornyn and Sessions reflects a gamble by Republicans that Bush, who left office in 2008 deeply unpopular with broad swaths of the American public, will, as almost every president does, rebound in terms of his public image as time passes. To date, that softening in public opinion has yet to occur. In April, a CBS/New York Times poll showed just over one-quarter of the public (27 percent) saw Bush in a favorable light while 58 percent viewed him unfavorably. In a June NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, 50 percent said they felt negatively about Bush while 29 percent had positive views. (The percentage of people feeling "very" negative -- 31 percent outstripped all of those feeling positive.) And, polling suggests that Bush is still broadly blamed for the current state of the economy, which almost certainly will be the top-of-the-mind voting issue this fall. Fifty nine percent of respondents from a Post/ABC News poll in April said Bush was more to blame for the current state of the economy while 25 percent put the blame on President Obama. It's not surprising given those numbers that Democrats are doing everything they can to remind people about Bush -- and, more broadly, what Republicans did they when they ran Washington -- heading into the midterms. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (N.J.) insisted that the November election will "be about whether or not we go back to the Bush economic policies that they espouse." But, elections are almost always about the future, not the past. While there is, without question, widespread and lingering distaste with Bush's presidency, it's not clear whether that is a vote motivator for most people.
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