Ed Gillespie joins Mitt Romney campaign

It was announced last week that Mitt Romney's presidential campaign added Ed Gillespie as a senior advisor.

Gillespie has worked with many campaigns over the years. He served as Republican National Committee Chairman as well as taking over as Republican Party of Virginia chairman in 2006. He left that position in 2007 to join President George W. Bush's administration. In 2009, he was part of the team that helped Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell lead the Republican sweep one year after Barack Obama took over the White House.

Mitt Romney is the Republican front runner in the presidential campaign, seeking the nomination to go up against Barack Obama in the general election in November.

George W. Bush not endorsing in presidential primary is no mystery

The media are beside themselves trying to figure out why former President George W. Bush has not endorsed in the current Republican presidential contest. Everywhere you look, there's some variation of the question wondering why he isn't front and center. One example of the ink spent on the story is this one from Politico that asks, "Where is George W. Bush?" and accuses him of being on a "self-imposed exile" from the current political season.

After Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, endorsed Mitt Romney for president last week, the feeding frenzy picked up with many of the mainstream media outlets wondering whether W would endorse and why he hadn't already endorsed and explaining the reasons why that made him the proverbial elephant in the room.

The plain and simple answer is that George W. Bush is doing nothing any different now than he has done since leaving the White House in 2009. He has made it a point to keep a low profile in his private life and not interfere in policies or make comments about the current president or issues. It's the way of the Bush family. It's called diplomacy, something missing with many in the MSM.

Friends with the Romney family for years, the Bush family has ties that have encouraged former President George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, to endorse Republican front runner Mitt Romney. Former First Lady Barbara Bush has even made Get Out The Vote calls for Governor Romney.

George W. Bush, meanwhile, is simply continuing his policy of not interjecting himself in politics. Interesting that the MSM are able to put so many words in his mouth during his silence.

Typical of GWB, he is not letting the press live rent-free in his head as he goes about his life. It has been three years since the Bushes left Washington and during that time he has found plenty to keep him busy. He wrote a #1 national best seller book, "Decision Points," that stayed at the top of the charts for weeks, selling two million copies in the first month and outpacing books written by former President Bill Clinton and others.

He has been busy in Dallas with the Bush Center, the Bush Library, and the Bush Institute, traveling the country and the world on behalf of human freedom, global health, education, economic freedom, and AIDs research in Africa, something he began while President. In 2008, he received the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Award for his work in Africa, and in December 2011 he and Mrs. Bush traveled to Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Zambia in their continued commitment to the people.

Indeed, not many are aware of Bush's humanitarian work in other parts of the world -- most certainly the MSM doesn't give credit. However, in the summer of 2011, Bono of the rock group U-2 praised Bush for his fight against AIDs in Africa, a stand that has saved over five million lives during the past eight years. Separately, human rights activist John Prendegast noted that it was during Bush's administration and with the help of America's influence that South Sudan was able to successfully obtain peace with the north.

Democrat Bob Beckel, co-host on Fox News Channel's "The Five," recently praised Bush's African work and picked him as one of his two all-time favorite presidents.

On the home front, most of the time the former president has spent with America's military members is unknown to the public, greeting solders at airports when they return home from service overseas, reaching out to individual families, and working with the Wounded Warrior Project that surrounds him with injured military veterans.

A 2011 Fox News video report by Bret Baier about the Wounded Warrior 100K bike ride in the back country of Texas showed the real George W. Bush, comfortable with everyday Americans and revealing the one thing he misses as president is being Commander in Chief of the military. The connection between him and the troops is real as he shows respect and admiration for them and they, in return, show respect and admiration for him.

In addition, Bush has spoken to numerous groups around the country, helped raise money for a number of charitable causes, and, in 2010, he and former President Bill Clinton set up a relief fund for the victims of Haiti's earthquake.

Most of all, he is able to enjoy time in private with family and on the ranch. From Politico:

... Bush has never had the political neediness of Clinton, and is not spurred on by what [former Bush White House spokesman Ari] Fleischer dubbed “the roar of the crowd.”

“So much of it is voluntary,” Fleischer said about Bush’s isolation. “I think President Bush is happy to be enjoying his private life. I don’t think he craves or misses life on the stump.”

Indeed, while many in the Republican Party may be eager to turn the page on Bush, former aides to the 43rd president say that’s a two-way phenomenon: Bush, too, has happily moved on from politics as a profession.

The ability to voluntarily step back from the limelight is the sign of a leader and a truly secure individual. George W. Bush obviously is comfortable with his life and feels no need to entertain the MSM by doing what they want.  As a result, he will continue writing the script of his own life, and it may or may not include an endorsement of Mitt Romney. One thing is for sure: The final decision will, ultimately, be his.

Cross-posted at Bearing Drift

Even Democrats are alarmed at nation's unemployment

Unemployment is at 9.2%. Twenty million Americans are out of work, have stopped looking, or are underemployed.

Even the Democrats are alarmed. The ProgressiveDem blog wrote:

The disdain shown by Obama, his administration, and his political and economic crew towards the tens of millions of struggling, unemployed Americans trying to find jobs when there are none or not enough, and those working for stagnant wages, living from pay check to pay check, barely hanging on is abominable.

Here is the latest pile of cow excrement being thrown at them by these pompous, damn DINO asses.

What followed were excerpts from a post by Scarecrow at Firedoglake:

"I’ve always thought the pent up anger at George Bush and the frustration from the Bush years would have allowed Daisy Duck or the Chipmunks to win the Presidency in 2008. So the trick was to elect someone who understood that anger and was prepared to reverse all the reasons it existed. Sure, the Obama message people understood this, but so did my cat.

"Now the people who helped Obama defraud voters by channeling everyone’s hope for change have convinced themselves he won the election because they’re political geniuses.

"The lastest example of this delusion is Obama’s senior campaign adviser, David Plouffe, who confidently told Bloomberg that going into the 2012 elections with over 8 percent unemployment and no meaningful jobs programs will not hurt Obama’s chances for reelection.

When it comes to jobs and the economy, Americans become everyday people without Rs or Ds behind their names. They need to provide for their families.

Jim Hoeft at Bearing Drift blog has the June unemployment report and notes:

... you can sense the frustration growing from Majority Leader Eric Cantor whose House Republicans have been trying to pass job creating legislation and boost economic growth, only be stymied by the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress.

Meanwhile, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air doesn't mince words at the incompetence after Obama White House adviser David Plouffe said "unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers do not matter to the average American." Morrissey wrote:

This is denial on the scale of Baghdad Bob. The “prism” of GDP and the unemployment rate are precisely how Americans evaluate the economy. They don’t give a damn if the President makes decisions “based on me and my family” if those decisions turn out to be disastrous, and right now, that’s the case presented in the latest economic slide. Plouffe’s argument seems to be that people will vote for caring incompetence — and while that may be the only argument left for Obama’s re-election, Plouffe and company are about to find out that denial isn’t exactly a winning strategy.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney didn't mince words either as he retorted in Politico:

With their cavalier attitude about the economy, the White House has turned the audacity of hope into the audacity of indifference.”

Ouch.

Eric, Jeb, Mitt ... National Council for a New America

Meeting in a family-owned pizza parlor that was packed with an overflow crowd of everyday Americans, Congressman Eric Cantor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney opened up a conversation with America on Saturday, listening to citizens about their concerns and policy ideas. It was democracy at its best. As they hold more townhall-type meetings, they will continue to connect the people with their government and reinvigorate the conservative movement.

I talked with 7th Congressional District Chairman Linwood Cobb Saturday about the National Council for a New America. His representative is Congressional Republican Whip Eric Cantor, and Linwood was excited about this new venture that would revitalize Republicans outside D.C., going from town to town listening to America.

Check out this video ... check out the website and nominate your town for the National Council for a New America listening tour.

The best for Republicans is yet to come.

Read the official press release at SixtyFour81.com.