{"id":6902,"date":"2006-03-20T14:29:29","date_gmt":"2006-03-20T19:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/6902.html"},"modified":"2006-03-20T14:29:29","modified_gmt":"2006-03-20T19:29:29","slug":"i-cant-say-i-blame-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/i-cant-say-i-blame-them\/","title":{"rendered":"I can’t say I blame them"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the most recent SurveyUSA poll<\/a>, Bush’s approval rating in Ohio is a pitiful 34%. This from a state that backed Bush’s presidential campaigns, twice.<\/p>\n

So, when Bush visited Cleveland this morning to share his bizarre<\/strike> optimistic perspective on the war in Iraq, which of the state’s major GOP players were anxious to be seen with him? Well, none<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When a president’s popularity plummets as Bush’s has, other politicians often avoid public appearances with them. Prominent Ohio Republicans including Sen. Mike DeWine, Sen. George Voinovich and Rep. Steve LaTourette say they’re skipping Bush’s speech because of prior commitments.<\/p>\n

DeWine is visiting his convalescing father in Florida and accompanying him to spring training baseball games. LaTourette previously scheduled a staff retreat in Washington. Voinovich has meetings in Washington that he couldn’t reschedule. Gov. Bob Taft, whose popularity is even lower than Bush’s, isn’t expected to attend, either. Taft noted that he attended Bush’s speech last month outside Columbus, as did Voinovich. Today’s event isn’t on the schedules of either Jim Petro or Ken Blackwell, the GOP candidates to replace Taft, their spokesmen said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe some of these guys have legitimate excuses and plans that just couldn’t be changed. But all of them? Taft isn’t even going to be on the ballot again, but he still doesn’t want to be seen with Bush.<\/p>\n

Of course, I can’t say I blame them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the most recent SurveyUSA poll, Bush’s approval rating in Ohio is a pitiful 34%. This from a state that backed Bush’s presidential campaigns, twice. So, when Bush visited Cleveland this morning to share his bizarre optimistic perspective on the war in Iraq, which of the state’s major GOP players were anxious to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902","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=6902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}