Some Republicans Happy to Be at Arm’s Length from Bush, Party (RNC/Gustav)

[Suji to Seoul]

Some Republicans Happy to Be at Arm’s Length from Bush, Party
By Eric Pfeiffer, CQ Staff

While President Bush isn’t coming to the Republican convention at all because of Hurricane Gustav’s threat to the Gulf Coast, he was never going to have a high profile at the GOP get-together and given the sour mood of voters about the direction of the country and his administration’s performance, that is likely to be true when the campaign enters its fall stretch.

The irony of the coming election season is that voters will hear Democrats talking about Bush more than Republicans. Democratic nominee Barack Obama provided a good preview of that in his acceptance speech Thursday night when he said, “The record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time.”

With Bush’s approval ratings scraping bottom in the waning months of his presidency, the desire of Republican candidates up and down the ticket to align themselves with the president or have him campaign for them also appears to be at a low. In fact, many will find themselves tagged by Democratic opponents with the same kind of line Obama used about McCain.

Bush has made several campaign stops for House and Senate candidates, but those appearances have largely been kept under the political radar. The president also continues to raise large amounts of campaign cash for his party, especially for presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain . However, Bush and McCain have only held one high-profile public event together: a Rose Garden press conference shortly after McCain effectively secured his party’s nomination.

Insightful Article on why McCain postponed "opening day."

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002942866

[L. Coyote]

1. K&R> Great find, and what we all are thinking. Using Gustav as an excuse

for their totally McLame event!

No, no comparisons between Denver and St.Paul will be valid, they have strategized!!!.