One big point Bush made at his press conference was that he had gained political capital and he planned to spend it.

If you wonder why he led with that point, you have to go back to the first Iraq War. When America won that war, his father’s popularity broke 90%.

As a moderate, Bush Senior tried to keep everybody happy. He didn’t use all that political capital to pursue any “divisive” issues. As a moderate, all he wanted was to get reelected.

I could tolerate moderates if their strategy of “going for the center” ever WORKED. But their strategy of selling out principles for votes is not just immoral. As a political professional I am not exactly a pillar of morality.

What really upsets me about moderates is that they are not just immoral, they are STUPID.

So when his popularity hit 91%, Bush Senior didn’t use that political capital to pursue ANYTHING. His popularity dribbled away. Buchanan took him on in the primary.

Reagan had gone hard right in 1980 and won a smashing victory. Reagan did the same thing in 1984. Bush ran as Reagan’s successor in 1988 and won on Reagan’s coattails.

But Bush Senior could have lost in 1988 if he had not had the hard right campaign of Lee Atwater.

By 1992, Bush was one more moderate Republican. He lost.

In 1994, Gingrich led the Republicans to the right with his Contract With America. They smashed the Democrats.

Again.

All the theories say that you have to be in the middle of the road to win. But if you look at congresssional voting records, you will find that simply is not true. Those who get elected are on the left or the right.

Moderate Republicans lost. Bush Senior lost.

So Bush Junior is saying he just won an election and the first thing he says is that he is going to USE it.

No one else remembers any of this, so The Man With a Memory will bring it up here.

Meanwhile Bush Junior is dribbling back to the center. He doesn’t matter to me at all, but I have to give it to him personally that at least he’s TRYING to learn something from his father’s mistakes.