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Bush Signals Support for McCain

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Bianca
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« on: February 08, 2008, 08:36:13 am »











                                                     Bush Signals Support for McCain
 



 
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 8, 2008;

With the race to succeed him reaching a critical juncture, President Bush this morning began rallying the Republican base around its presumptive nominee, John McCain, and in the process tried to define his own legacy for the general election campaign to come.

In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Bush offered an implicit endorsement of McCain's bona fides as a true conservative in the face of deep skepticism on the right. Although he did not mention McCain by name, the president said whoever ends up being the Republican nominee will represent conservative values.

"We have had good debates and soon we will have a nominee who will carry aconservative banner into this election and beyond," Bush said. "The stakes in November are high . . . Prosperity and peace are in the balance. So with confidence in our vision and faith in our values, let us go forward, fight for victory and keep the White House in 2008."

The speech appears to kick off a new phase in which Bush and the Republicans try to put the wounds of the primary season behind them and figure out how to position themselves for the battle with Democrats still to come. Although former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee remains in the race, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's withdrawal yesterday appeared to clear the way for McCain to claim the nomination and pivot toward the November election.

The president has remained officially neutral throughout the nomination fight but he agreed to give Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace an hour-long interview at Camp David this weekend to talk about the looming fall campaign. His speech to CPAC this morning had a valedictory tone that tried to cast his presidency as a time when he and the Republicans rose to new challenges and defended their principles against powerful odds.

Bush was received warmly by the conservative faithful. But the crowd cheered even louder when Bush paid homage to Vice President Dick Cheney, who he proclaimed "the best vice president in history."

The president then noted jokingly that his mother might disagree with that assessment -- an allusion to former president George H. W. Bush's two terms as the nation's second in command. But, Bush added smilingly, "my opinion is the one that counts."

Bush often professes not to be focused on what history will say about him and aides have said in recent weeks that he is not thinking about his legacy. Yet the speech repeatedly referred to his administration's accomplishments in the past tense.

He boasted of cutting taxes, reducing wasteful spending, drawing ethical lines in stem cell research and taking on drug abuse. With the exception of urging Congress to pass liability protection for telecommunications companies that have helped his administration's warrantless surveillance program, he devoted little of the talk to current issues or future promises.

Along the way, he offered a version of his tenure that would be hotly disputed by his foes. At one point in the speech, for instance, he said that the United States and its allies have made significant progress in defeating the Taliban and al-Qaeda. But violence has spiked in Afghanistan to the highest level since the U.S.-led operation that first dislodged the Taliban from power in 2001 and Bush's own administration has concluded that the situation there is worsening. Bush just agreed to send 3,200 more U.S. troops to try to reestablish security.

While vowing "to finish strong," Bush clearly is thinking about the dwindling number of days he has remaining in office. During a Middle East trip last month, he noted that he has "a timeline" of just 12 months and he later told mayors who visited the White House that he plans to settle in Dallas after his presidency. At the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, he noted that it would be the last time he would address that gathering as president and reflected on his turbulent years in power.

"Prayer has strengthened me in times of personal challenge," he said. "It has helped me meet the challenges of the presidency. I understand now clearly the story of the calm in the rough seas."
« Last Edit: February 08, 2008, 08:39:32 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2008, 08:38:08 am »









Bush's endorsement of McCain's conservative credentials could carry some weight, since the two battled fiercely for the Republican nomination in 2000 and have quarreled in the seven years since over issues such as taxes, torture and the execution of the Iraq war.

In the waning days of his campaign, Romney sharply questioned McCain's conservative record by pointing out that the Arizona senator voted against Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. McCain now says he supports making those tax cuts permanent.

While Bush may be able to help close conservative ranks behind McCain, the Arizona senator may keep a certain distance once he shifts fully into general-election mode. Bush remains popular with the Republican base, but his overall public approval rating is mired at 33 percent in Washington Post-ABC News polls, making him one of the most unpopular presidents in modern times. Embracing him too tightly could be problematic in the fall, yet alienating him could cause problems within the party fold.

McCain has tried to strike a balance as he has campaigned over the last year. He strongly supported Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq and may owe his political comeback in recent months to the security improvements yielded by the so-called surge. McCain also stood with Bush against the conservative base in pushing for a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, a plan both have backed off of for the moment to emphasize border security first.

Yet McCain has been vocally critical of Bush's pre-surge management of the war as well as his handling of Hurricane Katrina and other parts of his presidency. The senator has also passionately argued against some of the harshest interrogation techniques sanctioned by Bush that McCain considers torture, most notably a simulated drowning called waterboarding. When McCain describes his inspirations, he chooses Ronald Reagan, repeatedly calling himself a "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution."

But whether he likes it or not, he is now also a foot soldier following Bush, and the two will have to figure out how to fight the next battle together.



Staff writer Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.
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Bianca
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« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2008, 08:52:11 am »







       

 
                                      Bush: "Peace And Prosperity" At Stake In Election





DEB RIECHMANN
AP
| February 7, 2008 

WASHINGTON — President Bush, rallying conservatives for a battle against Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, says "prosperity and peace" are at stake in the upcoming election for his successor.

"We have had good debates and soon we will have a nominee who will carry the conservative banner into this election and beyond," Bush said in prepared remarks of a speech he was to give Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

"Prosperity and peace are in the balance," the president said in speech excerpts the White House released on Thursday night. "So with confidence in our vision and faith in our values, let us go forward ... fight for victory ... and keep the White House in 2008."

Bush is not expected to mention by name John McCain, who almost surely will be the GOP's presidential nominee. Conservatives are resigned to seeing McCain lead the Republican ticket, but the Arizona senator has a long history of disputes over economic and social issues with the party's right flank.

It remains unclear whether conservative voters will stay at home in November, or try to influence McCain's positions _ and his choice of a running mate. In his own defense, McCain says he is a true conservative and has lined up endorsements of many conservative political leaders.

After Republican Mitt Romney announced on Thursday that he was suspending his campaign, Bush had to pencil in minor changes to his speech, making it more forward-looking to the November election. Still, the White House says it's not time yet for Bush to formally weigh in on the election.

Instead, he is using his speech to the conservative gathering as a venue for comparing and contrasting Republican philosophies with those of GOP critics.

He defended his record on the economy, saying tax cuts contributed to a record 52 months of job creation, which just ended. Bush backed his decision to twice veto legislation that would have paved the way for taxpayer-funded embryo research, and lauded medical advances in stem cell research that would yield good results without destroying embryos.

On Iraq, the president defended his decision to send thousands more U.S. troops into Iraq.

"Our critics had a different view," he said. "They looked at rising violence in Iraq and declared the war was lost. Some concluded the surge had failed before it had even fully begun. ... We stood our ground and we are seeing the results. ... The progress in Iraq is fragile and there are tough days ahead, yet even the enemy recognizes that they are on the wrong side of events."

Bush said his administration stayed on the offense against extremists in Afghanistan because it recognized that the threat was not just a matter of law enforcement. "One commentator said most Afghans would oppose an American invasion and fight the foreign occupiers," Bush said.

Instead, Bush said the hardline Taliban regime was ousted, the Afghan people elected a new president and parliament, roads and hospitals are being built, and while Afghanistan has a long recovery ahead, the United States, NATO and other allies are working to secure the country.

Last year was the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led toppling of the Taliban in 2001.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered 2,200 Marines to go to southern Afghanistan this spring. And on Thursday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, made a renewed push to portray the war as winnable and worthy of international support despite a so-far-unsuccessful struggle to get more allies to commit frontline forces.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2008, 11:26:41 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Volitzer
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« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2008, 10:24:36 am »

Yet vacations with the Clintons while McCain's wife campaigns for Hillary.

Come on people make the CFR connection.  Conspiracy to F Shocked Shocked Shocked  the Republic
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