Politico's Jonathan Martin writes that top Democratic strategists are quite doubtful of the White House strategy of bashing former President George W. Bush in an effort to save President Obama's political skin. “Voters are pretty tired of the blame game,” said longtime Democratic strategist Steve Hildebrand, a top aide on Obama’s presidential campaign. “What a stupid strategy that was."
...Another well-respected Democratic consultant put it simply: “Need a new game plan!”
...[T]here seems to be consensus now in the Democratic consulting community that candidates can’t simply insert grainy footage of the former president into a commercial or say their rivals will “support Bush policies” and hope voters will respond.
..."You can’t just brandish [Bush’s image] and wave it like a pennant.”
The White House's real problem: Even if George W. Bush deserves some or all blame for recent economic problems, Obama set himself up for a huge fall by creating unrealistic expectations about his presidency. He ran as a bipartisan consensus-maker who would solve problems, then began governing as an ideologue with a damn-the-torpedos-jam-everything-down-your-throat-at-once strategy.
Everyone could support "Change" and "Hope" when they were still just vague, undefined buzzwords. As their content has taken shape, President Obama's approval ratings on domestic issues have plunged. His party has suffered unusually severe and unlikely losses in three consecutive statewide elections.
Our own Chris Stirewalt sums it up thus, noting the move by Obama 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe to bail out a struggling White House:
By having Obama run as a shamanistic healer rather than as a politician with a program, Plouffe set up the president for a precipitous fall.
