WaPost: 'Obama yet to leave a lasting legacy for Africa on the scale of Bush and Clinton'

Laura and George W. Bush in Zambia, June 30, 2013.

The pictures are all over Facebook showing Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura traveling Africa this week as they continue their humanitarian mission that began before leaving the White House four years ago.

Slowly but surely liberals have begrudingly had to admit GWB has played a large role in AIDs relief that has been credited with saving millions of lives. The Bushes have been instrumental in other global health advances, too, and are almost revered in that part of the world.

President Barack Obama? Not so much, and the Washington Post has noticed:

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush passed innovative Africa initiatives while in the White House and passionately continue their development work in the region in their presidential afterlife. Obama’s efforts here have not been so ambitious, despite his personal ties to the continent.

It must be a tad awkward for Obama to find himself in Bush's shadow after spending the first four years of his administration blaming his predecessor for everything that went wrong in America. The Post notes that Obama is five years into his administration and just now on a major tour of Africa, just the second time while President:

His first major tour of Africa as president is coming just now, in his fifth year, while Bush and Clinton are frequent fliers to Africa. Bush even will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, next week at the same time as Obama, although they have no plans to meet. Instead, their wives plan to appear together at a summit on empowering African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.

The people of Africa had expected more from America's first black president after he told them in his first year in office, "I have the blood of Africa in me."

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush captured the heart of Africa with work that continues to this day:

Clinton first drew extensive attention to Africa in 1998 when he made the longest trip ever by a U.S. president, with stops in six countries that had never before been visited by any occupant of the Oval Office. Bush’s trip this week is his third in 19 months to promote his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership to combat breast and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. On this visit, he and his wife, Laura, plan to help renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment clinic in Zambia before heading to Tanzania for the African First Ladies Summit advocating investment in programs for women and girls.

After a week of renovating, President and Mrs. Bush opened the Mosi-Oa-Tunya clinic, a cervical cancer facility in Livingstone, Zambia. Their trip demonstrates their continued commitment to the people of Africa through the work of the global health initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. June 30, 2013

Photos from the George W. Bush Presidential Center

Bolling's Va Mainstream Project PAC taps 6 candidates for HoD support

In the second wave of flexing his political muscle, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling's "Virginia Mainstream Project" (VMP) has made six more political endorsements backed with financial support and radio campaign ads leading into contested primaries on June 11.

With the goal of electing mainstream, conservative Republicans to public office, VMP announced it had endorsed the following candidates for their Virginia House of Delegates races, some who are being challenged by tea party or Ron Paul candidates and are in particularly contentious contests:

- House District 15 – Delegate Todd Gilbert
- House District 28 – Speaker Bill Howell
- House District 29 – Delegate Beverly Sherwood
- House District 33 – Delegate Joe May
- House District 54 – Delegate Bobby Orrock
- House District 85 – Mr. Scott Taylor

In addition to financial support, 60-second radio ads have been purchased and are airing for Orrock and Sherwood.

This is on the heels of VMP's endorsement and financial support to Delegate John Cosgrove who was successful in his May 9 firehouse primary seeking the Republican nomination for the 14th Senate District.

Bolling has stepped to the plate with his PAC, his experience, his reputation, and his willingness to endorse candidates interested in effective, common sense governing. That includes a pro-business attitude, fiscal responsibility, and a willingness to work toward searching for bi-partisan, pragmatic solutions. Reinforcing that commitment, Bolling noted:

"If we are going to win elections in Virginia, we must nominate candidates who will appeal to Republicans and Independents and attract new people to our party.  I believe these candidates will help us accomplish that goal, but they need your help to win."

The two-term lieutenant governor, who had been very involved and inviting with the grassroots of the party and conservative bloggers during his years in Richmond, unexpectedly found himself in his new leadership role as senior statesman after stepping away from the 2013 gubernatorial race. A series of maneuverings within RPV led to the takeover of the state central committee by the tea party and Libertarian activists who then reversed an earlier vote for a 2013 primary to a much more controlled convention, the one that recently took place in Richmond.

Because of that change, Bolling briefly flirted with the idea of running as an independent but decided against it in March, prompting the Lynchburg News and Advance to editorialize:

Bill Bolling is no tax-and-spend liberal, no R(epublican) I(n) N(ame) O(nly) as uber-conservative activists have tried to portray him. He’s a traditional Virginia conservative, a public servant who labored for his constituents as a Hanover County supervisor, then state senator and finally lieutenant governor for almost eight years.

But the type of public servant Bolling is just isn’t what’s in fashion with the Republicans right today. An elected official who actually believes government has a role in society but who wants it to operate efficiently, leanly and unobtrusively is not the politician the tea party loves who sees government as a beast to be starved.

In May, Bolling reflected on his new role in Virginia Republican politics with reporter Errin Whack at the Washington Post:

“I found myself in a position of being the voice of a lot of mainstream Republicans across the state who were trying to call our party back to a more mainstream approach to politics and policy,” Bolling said in an interview. “It’s not a role I envisioned playing, but it’s a role I was thrust into because of the way things have evolved, and it’s a role I’m comfortable playing.”

It all led to the Virginia Mainstream Project. As the News and Advance wrote in the conclusion of their editorial:

In announcing his decision earlier this week, Bolling lamented what he — and we — see as the “Washingtonization” of Virginia politics. Political battles, achieving the label of most ideologically pure, hyper-partisanship and just plain meanspiritedness seem to be oozing their way into the halls of the state Capitol.

That’s not Bill Bolling’s way of leading. That’s not “The Virginia Way” of governing, or at least it hasn’t been.