Bush's Calendar Empty as McCain, Republican Lawmakers Avoid Him

[WI_DEM]

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- There is an invisible man in the 2008 election: the president of the United States.

Republican candidates have all but shunned him, save those who need him to help raise money. And to the extent any president can keep a low profile, George W. Bush is doing it.

Saddled with one of the lowest approval ratings in polling history, the president is still in demand to shake the party money tree, though almost all of that is done out of the public eye.

``Sadly, a highly visible presence by the president will hurt the party and hurt John McCain,'' Bush's former spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Republican candidates in close races compete for prominent politicians. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stumped with North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich campaigned with Ohio Representative Steve Chabot. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is booked for events every week through Election Day, while Bush's public political calendar has mostly been empty.

``The country is looking for change, and he's not the most popular president in recent times,'' said David Carney, political director for Bush's father, President George H. W. Bush.

Public Events

In 2000, Vice President Al Gore generally kept his distance from Bill Clinton while seeking to succeed him. The two-term incumbent was still in demand with other Democrats, holding 202 fundraisers during his last year in office and campaigning for House candidates in states such as New York, Missouri, and Arkansas, Clinton's former spokesman Jake Siewert said.

``Clinton spent an enormous amount of time on the campaign trail,'' Siewert said. ``There was a fair amount of demand for him to do public events.''

McCain didn't utter Bush's name during his Sept. 4 speech accepting the Republican nomination. Pairing the words ``George'' and ``Bush'' is seemingly so politically dangerous that the Arizona senator even referred to the elder Bush only as ``the 41st president.''

McCain, 72, isn't the only Republican politician keeping his distance. Of 11 governor's races this year, the president has campaigned just with the North Carolina Republican nominee, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, and he has appeared with only a handful of hopefuls for 435 U.S. House seats.

For candidates this year, being photographed with Bush gives ammunition to opponents seeking to shackle Republicans to the White House.

`Don't Want to Be Seen'

``They simply don't want to be seen with him,'' said Tad Devine, a strategist in presidential campaigns for Democrats Gore and John Kerry.
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