Noem: George W. Bush Not Conservative Enough

The Brits get a taste of Kristi Noem in their Daily Mail. UK reporter David Rose comes to South Dakota to call our Republican candidate for U.S. House "glamorous" and "gun-crazy." He also finds she takes her conservative cues from Glenn Beck, not George W. Bush:

But what sets Kristi apart from the mainstream Republican leadership is when she starts talking about the last Republican President, George W. Bush.

In Britain, people tend to think of Bush as quite conservative. Not Kristi. 'Of course Bush was a good president, but he leaned too much to the middle and created programmes that put too many people on the government payroll. And once the Democrats got control of the House in 2006, he only used his power to veto their legislation once.'

...Beck, a former disc jockey and now a bestselling author, has launched his online 'Glenn Beck university', and among its teachings is that America started to go to the dogs at the time of the First World War, when government expanded far beyond the limits envisaged by the founding fathers with the establishment of institutions such as the Federal Reserve and publicly funded universal education.

In South Dakota, 52 per cent of all voters and 80 per cent of Republicans say they identify with Tea Party values. Kristi Noem says she agrees with Beck's analysis.

'His overall concept of more limited government and the need to go back to what our forefathers wanted is right,' she says.

'There are things that have to change but, as Beck says, not core values' [David Rose, "They see Obama as a hostile, alien force - like Hitler or Pol Pot: The glamorous, gun-crazy women preparing to blow the President away," UK Daily Mail, 2010.10.24].

Kristi Noem thinks George W. Bush wasn't conservative enough... and Bush wanted to privatize Social Security. So did Kristi, back in May, before she had to start thinking about what she was saying.

But a Republican Party moving from George W. Bush to Glenn Beck as font of good governing principles is a scary, scary party.

Bonus photo: If for no other reason, check out Rose's article to see the money shot of Kristi Noem coming to drink your milkshake.