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Bush and McCain's Awkward Embrace
Time.com ^ | May 20th, 2008 | RAMESH PONNURU

Posted on 05/20/2008 1:06:09 PM PDT by The_Republican

The Democratic strategy for beating John McCain is pretty simple. Its principal element: Tie McCain to President Bush, no matter how hard he struggles to break free.

Last week illustrated the maneuvering over Bush. McCain started the week with a speech on global warming, where he broke with the president. By the week's end, though, McCain had been drawn into a fight over Mideast policy between Barack Obama and the White House, with McCain taking Bush's side. Obama knows that voters do not yet trust him on foreign policy. But he also knows that they are even more wary of what Democrats call "a third Bush term."

The strategic choices for McCain are much trickier. Bush is unpopular with the public at large, but many Republicans still support him. The Republicans who disapprove of Bush are split further, between those who fault Bush for being too conservative and those who fault him for not being conservative enough. The first group thinks Bush should have signed the Democrats' bill to expand the children's health-care program. The second group thinks he should not have created a prescription-drug program for the elderly.

McCain won the Republican primaries mostly because of his strength among anti-Bush Republicans, but he still has far to go among anti-Bush independents. Pro-Bush Republicans, meanwhile, remain distrustful of him, and every time he courts the more moderate voters — by reiterating his support for caps on carbon emissions, for example — their distrust grows.

McCain and Bush fought fiercely for the Republican nomination in 2000, and the bad blood lasted for several years. Now both of them want McCain to win, and McCain wants Bush to do everything he can to help — which sometimes will include keeping a low profile. Democratic ads include footage of McCain hugging Bush.

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bushmccain; foreignpolicy; mccain

1 posted on 05/20/2008 1:06:12 PM PDT by The_Republican
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To: The_Republican

I couldn’t care less what Time or newsweek have to say. Both have given up any pretenses of objectivity.


2 posted on 05/20/2008 1:08:43 PM PDT by Perdogg (Four years of Carter gave us 29 years of Iran; What will Hilabama give us?)
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To: The_Republican
OK...Tie McCain to President Bush

Then...Tie Hussein Obama to Carter, Castro, Chavez, etc.

3 posted on 05/20/2008 1:10:20 PM PDT by TRY ONE (NUKE the unborn gay whales!)
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To: The_Republican

Tie all leftist politicians from all political parties together, and then let us true conservatives successfully pick actual decent conservatives to run for POTUS and for all of the other political offices at every political level instead. The U.S. will truly become a long-term socialistic country no matter who the next POTUS will be as long as the next Congress is truly also a non-conservative majority in both Houses.


4 posted on 05/20/2008 1:16:45 PM PDT by johnthebaptistmoore (Vote for conservatives AT ALL POLITICAL LEVELS! Encourage all others to do the same on November 4!)
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To: TRY ONE

...Hamas, Ahmadinijad, Assad, — gee, our list is bigger than theirs...


5 posted on 05/20/2008 1:42:42 PM PDT by Right Cal Gal (Abraham Lincoln would have let Berkeley leave the Union without a fight)
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To: Perdogg

My general newstand tactic is to place multiple copies of some slow selling magazines over the top of the Time and Newsweak stacks - it’s a small, probably ineffectual gesture, but it does bring a certain amount of personal, “civil disobedience” satisfaction.


6 posted on 05/20/2008 2:53:34 PM PDT by HardStarboard (Take No Prisoners - We're Out Of Qurans)
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