Many worried Republicans on the ballot in November have been pushing away from the White House, not wanting to be dragged under by President Bush’s sinking approval ratings and growing anxiety over Iraq. That doesn’t mean they’re also fleeing his cash offerings, however. […]<\/p>\n
Republican candidates don’t want to be forced off message by such a visit and “have to spend the next two or three days talking about the president’s policies … or what happened yesterday in Ramadi (Iraq),” [GOP consultant Rich Galen] said.<\/p>\n
It has resulted in some fancy GOP footwork as candidates in tight races step away from Bush and Cheney on divisive issues but dance toward them when the subject is money.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When one candidate avoids being seen with the president, it’s easier to dismiss as an isolated incident. When it happens repeatedly over a short period of time, it starts to make Bush look like a photo-op pariah.<\/p>\n
As Raum explained, the examples have been piling up. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) was notably absent from a Bush event this week. Cheney was in New Jersey to help Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr., but Kean didn’t show up until Cheney was gone. Maryland Senate candidate Michael Steele skipped Bush’s speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in November. Minnesota Senate candidate Mark Kennedy skipped an appearance by Bush at a 3M Corp. plant outside Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
In Nevada, at a local GOP gathering, Sen. John Ensign (R) tied himself to Reagan, not Bush. At the same event, Rep. Jon Porter (R) told reporters, “I believe the president has his agenda, his focus. I have mine. I will always run on mine.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whenever the White House is asked if the president’s dwindling public support will prove to be a liability for Republican candidates, the Bush gang dismisses the idea out of hand. As proof, they point to the president’s long list of invitations from GOP candidates nationwide, all of whom are anxious to have the president help […]<\/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-6947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947","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=6947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}