{"id":15726,"date":"2008-06-01T10:30:32","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T14:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15726.html"},"modified":"2008-06-01T10:30:32","modified_gmt":"2008-06-01T14:30:32","slug":"waiting-for-bush-inspired-applause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/waiting-for-bush-inspired-applause\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for Bush-inspired applause"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ouch<\/a>. (via TP<\/a>)<\/p>\n

[Sen. Lindsey] Graham used his remarks to embrace President Bush, just hours before he was to meet Bush at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and accompany him to Furman University for a presidential commencement address that has divided the campus.<\/p>\n

At his first mention of Bush’s visit, Graham paused, waiting for applause. When it didn’t come<\/b>, it took a slight nod from Graham to prompt a round of applause. [emphasis added]<\/p>\n

“President Bush is my friend,” he continued, “and I’m not going to run away from the friend.”<\/p>\n

Graham credited Bush with preventing additional attacks on the U.S. since 9\/11, cutting taxes three times and successfully nominating Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

“History is going to judge him a lot better than everybody thinks,” Graham predicted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sure, Lindsey. Keep telling yourself that.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, this wasn’t just some random stop on the campaign trail. This was the South Carolina State Republican Convention. In other words, these are die-hard GOP loyalists in one of the nation’s most reliably-Republican states. We’re talking redder than red here.<\/p>\n

And this comes just a week after Still-President Bush couldn’t generate much interest<\/a> in a fundraiser for John McCain in Arizona (a state Bush carried twice by large margins), with the event having to be moved from the Phoenix Convention Center to a local private residence.
\n
\nAs for Graham, he’s in a bit of a pickle as he seeks re-election this year. He is not, at this point, the most popular lawmaker in the state’s delegation among rank-and-file Republicans. Graham currently faces a primary challenge from Buddy Witherspoon, who retired from the state Republican Party Executive Committee to take on the incumbent.<\/p>\n

Witherspoon has sought to portray Graham as a liberal who is soft on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n

Outside the meeting hall, his supporters planted signs reading, “Lindsey is too Liberal for South Carolina.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Graham, meanwhile, is counting on<\/a> Bush’s popularity in the state to give him a boost.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

In all likelihood, Graham should cruise to an easy victory in the GOP primary. But if he’s counting on tying himself to Bush, Graham may want to consider a Plan B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ouch. (via TP) [Sen. Lindsey] Graham used his remarks to embrace President Bush, just hours before he was to meet Bush at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and accompany him to Furman University for a presidential commencement address that has divided the campus. At his first mention of Bush’s visit, Graham paused, waiting for applause. When it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}