Why In the Name Of Heaven Is the DNC Praising George Bush?

Yesterday was one of those days that had a lot of bizarre threads running through it. Donald Trump enlisted the aid of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to claim he never said what he obviously did at least twice during the week.

Doddering, permanently concussed Senate Minority Leader [mc_name name=’Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000146′ ] claimed you could buy explosives and fully automatic weapons in unlimited quantities. And the DNC released what it took to be an attack ad on GOP presidential candidates that featured George W. Bush as the ideal to be emulated. It is only 0:55, so it is at the upward end of the attention span of the typical Democrat, watch it:

The DNC holding George Bush up as a positive example leads to sort of a vertigo where you aren’t sure if you’ve slipped into a worm hole and emerged in Bizarro World or all that acid from college had finally combined to produce a very bad trip.

Alex Griswold, writing at Mediaite, has the best summary:

I’ve seen my share of nasty, bizarre, and over-the-top political ads. But this may be the first that I can honestly say is just plain stupid.

In summary, the DNC strings together all the major GOP candidates referring to us being at war with “radical Islam” or some permutation thereof. Then they show Bush talking about how peaceful Muslims and how we are at war with “evil people”. The ad says, in grim white on black background lettering with somber music:

“Republicans keep saying the same thing. Equating Islam, all Muslims, with terrorists is oversimplification and wrong,”

The tag line is “Inciting fear isn’t presidential.”

This ad is instructive for a few different reasons that will become more obvious as we move into the election year.

First, the Democrat party apparatus actually believes the caricature it has constructed of Republicans via its scholarly outlets like DailyKos, Democratic Underground, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC. It is one thing to push the line that your opponents are stupid and uncaring but when the House and the Senate are in their control, as well as a clear majority of statehouses and state legislatures, there is a very obvious danger in believing your own press releases.

Second, as Allahpundit points out, George W. Bush used the “radical Islam” formulation himself, once in a State of the Union address. So this is not terribly well thought out. (In fact, it is so poorly thought out that no one looked at what the CNN chyron was saying during the Bush video clip. See the screen cap at the top of this story.)

Third, the Democrat party it totally out of touch with not only the nation but with its own rank and file. About the time this video was released, Rasmussen Reports released a poll on the subject:

President Obama, Hillary Clinton and other senior Democrats refuse to say America is at war with “radical Islamic terrorism” for fear of insulting all Muslims, but voters beg to disagree.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the United States is at war with radical Islamic terrorism. Just 24% share the president’s position and disagree. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Even 56% of Democrats believe America is at war with radical Islamic terrorism, a view shared by 70% of Republicans and 54% of voters not affiliated with either major party.

A staggering 92% of all voters now regard radical Islamic terrorism as a serious threat to the United States. This includes 73% who say it is a Very Serious one, up 23 points from 50% in October of last year.