President Who?

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Republican National Convention's brief and grudging acknowledgment of George Bush's presidency on Tuesday was, it turns out, generous compared to what was to follow.

Last night, he was roundly ignored. It was like he never existed.

It was almost surreal. Consider, for instance, how Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lashed out so passionately against "the Washington herd" -- as if it wasn't her own party's leader who's been the chief cowboy these past eight years.

Or consider former presidential candidate Mitt Romney's plea: "We need change all right: change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington," he said. "We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington: Throw out the big government liberals and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

Here's Democratic strategist Paul Begala on CNN last night: "It seems to me the purpose of this convention tonight is to help us all forget that for eight years George W. Bush has been running the White House; for six of the last eight years, the Republicans have run the House of Representatives; for five of the last eight years, they have run the Senate; and for all of the last eight years, they've run the Supreme Court. They've got seven of the nine justices were appointed by Republicans. So I think this is a terrific attempt...to try to shift away from the Republican record and try to sort of pretend they're an alien force that somehow is going to come into Washington and change things."

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