The GOP's Delicate Passing of the Baton

When it gathers next week in Minneapolis-St. Paul for its quadrennial convention, the Republican Party will try to turn the page from George W. Bush to John McCain. It won't be an easy trick.

The challenge for the party -- and by definition Bush, as the titular leader of the party -- is not completely dissimilar to that faced in past conventions, in which the nominee looked to escape the large shadow of an incumbent.

In 1988, Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, labored to create his own image independent of Ronald Reagan, who gave the senior Bush a warm though hardly effusive send-off at the New Orleans convention. In Los Angeles in 2000, Bill Clinton offered an effusive endorsement for Al Gore, after a lengthy recitation of what he saw as his administration's significant accomplishments.

For Bush and McCain, the political hurdle will be even higher, given the deep unpopularity of the president outside the convention hall. The last thing the McCain campaign wants is for Bush to reinforce the Obama message that the senator from Arizona is running for a third Bush term; what the McCain team seems to prefer is for Bush to help close the deal with voters in the GOP's base and with delegates who remain skeptical of McCain -- and otherwise get out of the way.

"The best way for George Bush to help McCain is to galvanize the Republican base, the conservatives, the evangelicals -- those folks with whom he has great credibility," said one McCain adviser.

The White House has been willing to oblige the McCain campaign's apparent desire that the president keep a healthy distance, with Bush quietly raising money for the GOP efforts this fall and aides biting their tongues over obvious gibes -- such as the McCain television ad stating bluntly that things are worse in this country than four years ago.

The White House team appears to be living the mantra popularized by Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis: "Just win, baby."

Save for a brief handshake on the tarmac in Arizona, the two men have not appeared in public together since a White House lunch in March. GOP operatives don't expect the two men to cross paths in the Twin Cities, where Bush is planning a quick trip to deliver his speech next Monday night before clearing out for McCain's arrival later in the week.

One GOP strategist close to both camps said he expects that Bush will be accompanied by much of his family, including his brothers, and that there will be a family-and-friends type reception on the day of the speech. First lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will also be on hand to speak to the convention Monday.

The big question is how Bush will use his final moment in the limelight, and to what extent he will try to defend the record of his administration. His aides were not prepared last week to offer many details, though press secretary Da na Perino said the speech will focus on McCain and give Bush's sense of why McCain is ready to tackle the challenges of the presidency.

"He will call on the party to do everything it can to elect John McCain," Perino said.

Whither the E-Mails?

An internal White House document provides some fresh clues about the status of the controversy that has been simmering since 2007, when it was discovered that potentially millions of White House e-mails over a two-year period were missing.