"George W. Bush is everywhere and nowhere in the 2012 presidential race. Reviled by Democrats and generally avoided as a campaign talking point by his fellow Republicans, the former president is in a self-imposed political exile — an absence that was underscored in the last two weeks as his father and brother backed Mitt Romney.
Bush’s only presence in the Republican campaign is by association, as President Barack Obama’s campaign and national Democrats pin three years of recession and the now-unpopular Mideast wars on the 43rd president. More than 40 percent of voters still blame Bush for the nation’s economic problems. Congressional Republicans hold him at a distance, and some have faulted his policies for helping to give rise to the unpredictable tea-party movement. “It saddens me, because I think that President Bush, through a perilous time for our country, kept us safe,” said former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer. “And people forget he came in with a recession, he left with a recession but in the middle, the economy boomed.”
Like many former Bush hands, most of whom declined to speak for the record, Fleischer suggested Bush is getting a raw deal from his fellow Republicans. “He’s taken a lot of hits, and politicians know how to read polls, and I understand why they’re not asking President Bush to stand at their side. But I think it’s unfortunate,” Fleischer said.
But instead of looking for a second act once off the stage like Bill Clinton — who eagerly interjected himself into the 2008 Democratic primary between his wife and Obama — Bush is, except for speeches and personal travel, in virtual hiding in Texas, where he bought a home in Dallas. Yet friends and former aides say that he has chosen to be in the wings.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74696.html
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