The Invisible Man - George W. Bush

As former Florida governor Jeb Bush, an intelligent, distinguished, and accomplished man, is campaigning with Republican candidate Mitt Romney, it is a curious and unusual phenomenon that the invisible men in the 2012 presidential race are immediate past President George W. Bush and "Vice," Dick Cheney.

Former Democratic President Bill Clinton is a hot ticket as he goes on the hustings to powerfully and passionately boost the Barack Obama bid for re-election, this former leader having come to be seen as a revered elder statesman despite the extent to which he soiled the presidency through his unseemly sexual escapades.

Mitt Romney walked a fine line at the recent town hall meeting-style debate when a questioner told the candidate that she was afraid that he would bring to office the same ruinous policies as fellow Republican, Mr. Bush. Romney did not denigrate Bush nor specifically state that his eight years in office were a failure, but he said that he is not the former president and would be a distinctly different type of president.

It is embarrassing for the GOP that it must hide and muzzle the individuals who led the United States until just four years ago. It is an admission that the Bush administration remains extraordinarily unpopular, charged and convicted by a large segment of the people with getting us into an expensive, senseless, and devastating war in Iraq, wrecking the economy, and exploding the national debt and federal spending, a legacy of failure from which Mitt Romney must somehow separate himself if he is to win this election. The existence of the Bush administration, even as it is inactive in this campaign, serves to place a thumb on the scale for President Obama.