Bush's Awkward Embrace

Steve Holland writes for Reuters: "McCain sometimes had trouble getting a word in edgewise."

Massimo Calabresi writes for Time: "The meeting was supposed to project a unified Republican front, a burying of past hatchets with smiles all around. But from the moment a fashionably late John McCain made President Bush awkwardly wait for him (and tap dance for the assembled media) at the North Portico of the White House, it was clear that this public endorsement of the freshly-crowned Republican presidential nominee was largely a marriage of convenience. . . .

"Bush put on his best strutting, cocky performance. He praised McCain's strength and his 'big heart' and his ability to 'handle tough decisions.' But there were already hints McCain saw the relationship in different terms. In his opening statement, he said he'd welcome the President on the campaign trail as his schedule allows, and he repeated that theme five times in ten minutes. He'd hold joint campaign events 'in keeping with the President's schedule,' he said. He hopes the President will 'find time from his busy schedule' to campaign with him, he said. McCain apparently hasn't seen the 'Week Ahead' memos the White House has been sending out that shows Bush's lame duck agenda sparsely dotted with feel-good meet-and-greets.

"McCain's excessive concern for Bush's day job simply underlined the fact that these two were never going to be the prettiest pair. First, they had to overcome their history, which is neither dead nor buried, despite what both sides want you to think. . . .

"Some observers are looking for what one insider calls the Texas two-step: a cordial embrace of Bush by the candidate, combined with trash talk behind the scenes by campaign staff. Then the question is, do the two men just drift apart, like Gore and Clinton, or does McCain draw a sharp line."

James Gerstenzang and Maeve Reston write in the Los Angeles Times: "Bush wrapped the Arizona senator in a brief political embrace Wednesday, just about when McCain would want it: eight months out from election day.

"Given the public's low opinion of the president, Democratic and Republican political operatives said, the further away from the election that that endorsement took place the better. And with the race for the Democratic presidential nomination still neck and neck, what better time than when attention is focused on Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama?"

Jill Zuckman writes in the Chicago Tribune: "McCain will face a serious challenge in deciding how much to campaign with the deeply unpopular president at a time when skittish voters are demanding change. . . .

"McCain's conundrum is clear. He wants to unite Republicans behind him, especially conservatives, and Bush's imprimatur is useful in doing so. But he also wants to attract independents and even Democrats, and Bush is more likely to hurt than help that effort.

"'I think one thing he will have to do if he has any shot of winning this fall is put a great deal of distance between himself and George Bush,' said William Mayer, a political science professor at Northeastern University. 'If he is just seen as an extension of Bush, then the Democrats win.'"

Michael Cooper and Elisabeth Bumiller write in the New York Times: "Mr. McCain's top advisers have said that they are eager to enlist the president for his fund-raising prowess but that they do not want him to appear too often with Mr. McCain. They have insisted that their reluctance in having Mr. Bush campaign heavily has nothing to do with the president's unpopularity.

"Instead, they have said they would not like any sitting president to appear too often with Mr. McCain because he needs to 'stand in the sun' on his own, as one adviser recently put it."