Tina blogged about this earlier but I figured you’d want to see the clip, partly for the curiosity of Dubya dipping a toe back into national policy and partly because you’ll be seeing this clip again later this year when the Democrats start their attack ads over letting the Bush tax cuts lapse. It’ll be an interesting test of the state of the Bush brand when they do. Is he still toxic enough to move the polls against Republicans if the DNC makes him the face of the pro-cuts argument (note his comment here about why they’re called the “Bush” tax cuts) or has he recovered enough of his reputation that his endorsement for extending the cuts won’t matter? I can think of at least one person who’s keenly interested in the answer to that question.

Here’s a short-ish clip of Dubya and a longer one of Paul Ryan from the same event. That’s, er, quite a pair of bookends when it comes to fiscal responsibility. But then, they did both support Medicare Part D.