Lindsey Graham really wishes George W. Bush were still president
Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham holds a host of unpopular opinions he’s never afraid to share: from support of immigration reform to an affirmation of climate change, from rebuking Donald Trump to wanting to send thousands of U.S. ground troops to the Middle East.
But Tuesday night at CNN’s Republican undercard debate, Graham unleashed perhaps his most unpopular opinion of all — and emphatically — throwing his hands down onto his podium and declaring he wished George W. Bush were still president today. Yes, that George. W Bush, who left the White House with a 22 percent approval rating (the lowest in 70 years of the modern polling era) and whose brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has campaigned with an exclamation point after his first name instead of a surname to avoid calling attention to the connection.
Graham’s bold declaration came at the end of a rambling statement, one that began as a critique of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s dismissal of climate change as a geopolitical threat, evolved into an attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin and concluded with his wish to return to the Bush era, when America had thousands of troops in Iraq.
“Wouldn’t you like to export natural gas to cut his legs out from under [Putin]? I’m not afraid of a guy riding around on a horse without a shirt. The guy’s got a pair of 2s and we’ve got a full house and he’s walking all over Obama,” Graham said, before pivoting quickly to support Bush’s decision to send even more troops to Iraq when the mission was flagging.
“The surge worked! It worked! George W. Bush made mistakes, but he did adjust. I blame Obama for ISIL, not Bush,” Graham yelled. “I’m tired of beating on Bush! I miss George W. Bush! I wish he were president right now! We wouldn’t be in this mess!”
In sum, Graham is against Trump (though he’d still ultimately vote for him) and really for the one Bush who can’t be president again, positions that appear better suited for the Republican Party of 2004 than today’s fractured, insurgent GOP.
