Why was GW Bush (Jr Bush) better than Obama?

[richardhutnik]

SamuelRSmith said:

Mr Khan said:

John Adams: Blatant Federal overreach, namely in the form of the Alien & Sedition act, a law very blatantly opposed to the First Amendment in a way that we've pretty much never seen since then. Also a lot of foreign meddling in a time when America had no stomach for it.

John Q. Adams: Used the so-called "Corrupt Bargain" to get into office, which people basically saw as him stealing the election

Martin Van Buren: Presided over the Panic of 1837 when America went bankrupt

Grover Cleveland: Opposed the influence of big business at a time when big business was at its absolute height of influence in American politics

Benjamin Harrison: A ruinous tariff.

William Taft: Shift in the system with TR running for another term, split the Republican electorate.

Herbert Hoover: Great Depression

Gerald Ford: Pardoning Nixon for Watergate

James Carter: Tehran Hostage Crisis

George Bush (1): Ross Perot serving as a glitch in the system.

Thanks for that, given me a lot of stuff to read in to!

As an aside, the thing that amazes me is that, if we all know that an incumbent is hard to beat, why do people like Mitt Romney spend so much money? I mean, he's not daft, he must know that he's got a cat in hell's chance of winning. Why not just wait until 2016? I can see why candidates like Paul would run, because it was about bringing a certain message to the platform, or people like Gingrich, because it's a publicity stunt. But Romney seems to really want this job...

Maybe Romney knows that, with a stronger bunch of candidates, he has less chance of getting the nomination... so he knows he's bottom of the barrel, which means he knows that he has even less chance of winning the Presidential.

Just seems like such an odd decision for the man.

There is a desire of legacy that compels rich people to end up running for president, because it is a position of power unlike really any others.  They view how the world should be, and believe that if they were in a positon of such power, they could do a good job.  With Romney, he ran in 2008, and built a base since that time.  For him to take off 4 years would be a risk.  So, given all things lining up, he decided to run, and win the nomination via process of elimination.

Thing I see happening with the GOP is their losers from the last primary period tend to get the nomination the next time the office is held by a Democrat.  I believe it has to do with groundwork being laid down from the last election.