Dems Plan to Run Against George W. Bush

Brilliant...just brilliant:

House Democrats plan to revive the political ghost of former President George W. Bush in their bid to retain the majority this fall, according to Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the head of the party’s re-election efforts.

Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, on Tuesday signaled House Democrats will try to repeat their success in the last two election cycles by once again running under a change banner.

“This time we will make the case that supporting a Republican is simply turning back the clock to Bush economic policies, the same policies that got us into this mess to begin with,” he told reporters gathered at the downtown offices of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think thank. Republicans, Van Hollen added, “will I think put themselves clearly in the position where they represent the status quo and that the Democrats, while we have the White House and both houses of Congress, remain the party of change and reform.”

Ah, more rainbows and unicorns.

You notice how they're NOT running on their health care vote? That appears to be a problem for them, though they think highlighting GOP votes AGAINST the bill will be a positive:

And Democrats plan to force Republicans to defend their votes against the health care bill and the subsequent calls by some in their ranks to repeal it. The party has been “monitoring very closely all the Republicans who have signed on for repeal,” he said, with the aim of highlighting the most popular new consumer protections that would be revoked if the law is rolled back. For Republicans who back a so-called repeal-and-replace strategy, Van Hollen said Democrats have a ready answer: “The problem with that argument is they had eight years under President Bush to do something.”

And the problem with Van Hollen's strategy is that the eight years of Bush are looking pretty good right now compared to 15 months of Obama. For all of Bush's problems he didn't create anywhere near the government monstrosity that is now building under Obama, and the voters, as expressed through many, many polls, don't like it a bit.

Rainbows and unicorns aren't going to save the day this time.