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Bush Bashing Won't Stop Anytime Soon

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 7, 2009 10:52 AM CDT

(Newser) – Barack Obama doesn’t want anyone to forget his predecessor. “You hand me a $1.3 trillion bill, and then you’re complaining six months later because we haven’t paid it all back,” he griped at a recent town hall. And you can expect him to keep bashing Bush for a while, Washingtonians tell Politico. “The battle for the history is always an essential part of winning the future,” says one GOP strategist.

A Democratic strategist agrees. “Obama has to talk about it, because it helps explain the agenda that he’s advancing every day,” he says. Strategists agree, however, that the president has to be careful not to sound like he’s whining. Some believe that by fall, he should stop mentioning Bush entirely, but others disagree. As one Democratic pollster notes, “Ronald Reagan ran against Washington pretty much the whole eight years.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

Former President George W. Bush addresses a Fourth of July crowd at the Let Freedom Ring 2009 festival at Crystal Beach Park Arena in Woodward, Okla., Saturday, July 4, 2009. (AP Photo)

Former President George W. Bush arrives with his wife, Laura, for an address by Bush to a Fourth of July crowd at the Let Freedom Ring 2009 festival in Woodward, Okla., July 4, 2009. (AP Photo)

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By September, October, that story’s not going to fly. It’ll be Obama’s war in Afghanistan, Obama’s economy. Whether it’s legitimate or not, that’s the way it works.
- Ed Rollins, Republican strategist

When asked the question, 'Who’s more to blame?' the American people say, ‘Bush is more to blame than Obama — but we’re looking to Obama for solutions.' - Douglas Schoen, Democratic strategist

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