Gibbs on Bush criticism: ‘We won’

Responding to criticism from former President George W. Bush, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama’s victory last year was a repudiation of Bush’s policies.

In a speech this week, Bush came off the sidelines for the first time since the beginning of the Obama administration to lob criticisms at Obama for his economic policies and his decision to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

{mosads}Gibbs said Thursday that many of those policies were debated during last year’s election.

“We kept score last November, and we won,” Gibbs said.

Following in the vocal footsteps of his vice president, Dick Cheney, Bush made clear he does not agree with his successor.

“Government does not create wealth. The major role for the
government is to create an environment where people take risks to
expand the job rate in the United States,” Bush told a crowd of manufacturers in Erie, Pa.

But Bush saved his strongest language for Obama’s plan to close
Guantanamo Bay and possibly bring some of the detainees to U.S.
facilities.

“I told you I’m not going to criticize my successor,” Bush said,
before adding: “I’ll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that
will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don’t believe
that–persuasion isn’t going to work. Therapy isn’t going to cause
terrorists to change their mind.”

Gibbs noted that the Bush administration transferred “hundreds” of detainees from the facility at Guantanamo Bay.

{mosads}