LEVIN: Bush 'blazed the trail' for Obama's Big Government

Levin addressed a colleague's Commentary piece, responding to his reflection of Barry Goldwater's words on the 50th anniversary of that clarion call for liberty, who seemed very offended, "He said, you know, conservatism has to have the proper temperament." Levin response: "Really? In other words, 'like Bush,' he means."

"Bush was the Herbert Hoover to Obama's FDR. Bush helped blaze the trail for the Big Government actions that Obama has taken, ladies and gentlemen. I hate to offend, but facts are facts. Bush had several stimulus programs in the hundreds of billions of dollars. TARP, the biggest redistribution of wealth in American history, from you, the working people of this country, to the banks and hedge funds and all the rest. That started under Bush. Massive expansion of Medicare, which is going broke. Massive expansion of the federal role in education. Bush signed McCain-Feingold and limits on the First Amendment. And I could go on and on and on, but even more than anything else, as I've pointed out many times, the biggest deficit spending president in American history is Barack Obama. Number Two is George W. Bush. The man wouldn't veto budget bills. And he dragged down the Republican Party, which in 2006, lost the House and the Senate."

Is that the right temperament? As Levin emphasized, "Barry Goldwater was blazing a trail!" The fact that the Republican establishment fought ruthlessly against conservatives then, just as it does now, might have more to do with Republican defeats than temperament, Mr. Wehner. What about our Founding Fathers? What about the Framers of the Constitution? "I don't know, did Churchill have the right temperament?"



Also, think long and hard about this image as well, and you'll start to put the pieces together...