If the NY Slimes thinks GW did a DUH, then it must have been the right thing to do.

By the way, don't wipe your a$$ with this rag, it'll cause an immediate, and chronic case of "piles", curse of the Philistines, call it what you want, but 10 tons of Preperation H won't help you.

Well at least Bill Simon did not have to run and hide from GW like Harden in Arkansas had to with our ex (I love it that he is our ex). Wonder what kind of catchy headline the NYT will give to that story. Trashman shown the trailer door by candidate or Has-Been Loses His Homage

Oh yah, I forgot, it is the NYT.

TC

The have now changed the headline & story!

The link now takes you to this article:

Bush Gives Limited Support to Candidate in California

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
DANA POINT, Calif. Aug. 23 - President Bush came to California today for a decidedly restrained day of campaigning of behalf of Bill Simon Jr., the embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate, in a lackluster demonstration of how far the White House believes that Mr. Simon's prospects of unseating Gov. Gray Davis have fallen.
And, in what could be seen as a measure of how bleak Mr. Simon's chances seem to be, his advisers said they did not expect to see the president in California again before Election Day.
Mr. Simon's appearances with Mr. Bush were restricted to just two of the president's four scheduled events today. Both were fund-raisers closed to the general public, and open to only limited press coverage. Mr. Bush made no mention of Mr. Simon's name at the other two events he attended, a ``Welcome to California'' rally in Stockton this morning and an address to Hispanic leaders in Santa Ana on this hot afternoon.
At a fund-raising luncheon held in a vast hangar by a runway at the Stockton Municipal Airport, Mr. Bush lauded Mr. Simon as a ``proven businessman,'' but made no mention of the latest episode involving Mr. Simon that has stirred new concern about his candidacy among Republicans here and in Washington: a state jury verdict that found that Mr. Simon's family firm had defrauded a partner. The jury ordered the Simon firm to pay $78 million in damages.
When Mr. Bush described Mr. Simon as ``the next governor of the State of California,'' a standard line that typically draws a roar of approval from the kind of crowd that spends $1,000 for a political dinner, he was greeted by tepid applause, evidence of the sense many Republicans here have that Mr. Simon was frittering away what they had seen as an opportunity to unseat an unpopular incumbent governor.
The awkward day of appearances, to be followed by one more fund-raiser with Mr. Simon and Mr. Bush on Saturday morning, was evidence of what is shaping up as a major political disappointment for the White House. In the space of a summer, the California campaign has turned from a high-profile Republican chance to embarrass the Democrats by unseating an embattled incumbent in the nation's largest state, to what Republicans call a campaign in free fall and a setback to Mr. Bush's hopes, no matter how unlikely, of putting California in play in 2004.
Even before Mr. Bush arrived today, White House aides had expressed concern that the president himself could be hurt by being too closely associated with Mr. Simon. As he went through the motions of a political trip that many of his aides said they wished they could cancel, Mr. Bush seemed to be struggling to discreetly draw a line between himself and a Republican candidate who had once embodied the party's hopes in California.
Notwithstanding the distress in the White House, Mr. Simon described the presidential visit as the high point of his campaign, and his aides said they were relieved that Mr. Bush showed up. They noted that he helped Mr. Simon raise $3 million and had not done anything to so obviously distance himself from the first-time candidate to produce another round of damaging stories.
Instead, Simon advisers said, the candidate was at the welcoming party greeting the president when he arrived this morning. ``He is an absolutely critical element in helping this campaign,'' Sean Walsh, a Simon adviser, said of Mr. Bush. ``Without him, this campaign would have serious political and financial problems.''
And Mr. Bush's advisers see some clear benefit for the president in having a Republican governor elected in California, which is why the turn of events here has been so frustrating. The state has become increasingly Democratic over the years, but Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, said he believed that it could be competitive again in the 2004 race for the White House. Most politicians believe that is unlikely, although if Mr. Davis were defeated the Democrats would not be able to take victory here for granted, and might be forced to devote money and campaign efforts in the state.
As Mr. Bush and Mr. Simon moved awkwardly through their day, Democrats here took delight at their discomfort. Mr. Davis's office announced that the governor had signed three bills increasing penalties for securities and accounting fraud.
At the fund-raiser today, Mr. Bush urged support of Mr. Simon, using the kind of language he typically uses as he campaigns across the country. ``You need somebody in Sacramento who's got that kind of attitude, somebody who's willing to put aside all the typical old-style politics to bring a breath of fresh air, bring new life into a stagnant situation,'' he said.
But on a typical day of campaigning by Mr. Bush, the candidate he is supporting is at the president's side at every opportunity: whether it is introducing him at a public rally, or walking at his side at a public event. By contrast, Mr. Simon was hard to find today.
At the ``Welcome to California'' rally in Stockton this morning, in front of two-dozen television cameras and a hall packed with 3,500 flag-waving Californians, Mr. Bush did not mention Mr. Simon's name, even as he singled out a half-dozen Republican luminaries in the crowd. Since Mr. Simon was nowhere to be seen, the honor of introducing the president fell to Gary Podesto, the mayor.
The events that Mr. Simon did attend with the president did not seem designed to encourage much attention. For example, as Mr. Simon was listening to Mr. Bush describe him as a ``proven businessman'' at the Stockton Airport luncheon, most of the White House press corps was aboard a plane heading for Orange County, where Mr. Bush would attend the Hispanic rally.
A second fund-raiser was scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern time tonight.

At the welcoming ceremony, he reminded his audience that he had proudly signed a corporate-reform bill hurriedly passed by Congress

If one is anti corporation then he is equally anti capitalism in my view.

Accountants are responsible for the numbers in large corporations, not CEO's for cryin out loud. One doesn't need an MBA to know this. Yet Bush has an MBA? Why pray tell is he behaving as if he doesn't know who does the numbers for business?

As a CEO, I make the money or lose the money and my accountant tells me how much I made or how much I lost in the end. All I do is sell a product and my accountant keeps the books. I didn't go to school to be an accountant. I don't like crunching numbers unless they involve cash flow.

LOL! The media lefties have been assuring us for days that Bush would snub Simon. Now we have this constantly morphing headline as the NYT desperately spins away from reality. What? Did they have a realtime focus group in the pressroom testing this psuedo-story? Clearly the editors at the Times were obessesing, which is a very good sign.