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GOP Bush-bashing

By Ken Herman | Tuesday, September 25, 2007, 04:28 PM

Though President Bush insists he is a “strong asset” for Republicans seeking election next year, there seem to have been repeated efforts by GOP presidential candidates to distance themselves from Bush.

But who’s counting?

William Benoit, a University of Missouri-Columbia faculty member who teaches communications.

He’s gone through the debates to date and found Bush “has been attacked” by GOP candidates 60 times.

“At the end of Reagan’s term, the Republicans attempting to get the nomination didn’t attack Reagan,” Benoit said. “At the end of Clinton’s second term, the Democrats who were attempting to get the nomination didn’t attack Clinton. Now, at the end of George W. Bush’s second term, the Republicans are criticizing Bush fairly frequently. This has never happened before. Usually candidates want to support his or her own party.”

Quick, semi-related question: Benoit’s findings come to us by way of a release from the University of Missouri-Columbia. That same release second references the university as MU. Anyone know how MU becomes the acronym for the University of Missouri?

First attempted explanation comes from Charles N. Davis, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Missouri, who acknowledges the MU acronym as “terribly confusing …MU is the acronym for the university system, a multi-campus conglomeration.”

But a check of the system’s website - umsystem.edu - indicates otherwise. MU does not appear on umsystem.edu. UM is repeatedly used as the acronym. So we are back where we started: Can somebody in the land of show-me show us how University of Missouri becomes MU? Ditto for the University of Oklahoma, known, inexplicably, as OU, and the University of Kansas, which goes by KU.

Update: Professor Davis now says he is told the University of Missouri calls itself MU - as opposed to the more correct UM - to avoid confusion with the University of Michigan.

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By PBCE RESIDENT

September 26, 2007 12:13 PM | Link to this

Ken: Try this site http://www.missouri.edu/ It refrences MU many times throughout. The Prefessor was correct, it is referenced many times and is confusing.

By Joe

September 26, 2007 1:13 PM | Link to this

Any republican running for re election is better off distancing themselves from W, with his way of doing things, I am not sure anyone wants his advice and or presence or support.

If his ratings are anything close to whatever the vote will be, the Republicans are in trouble.. sad, but true..