Bush's Awkward Embrace

Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press: "Beware, John McCain. The money comes with a price. Sure, President Bush will raise millions of dollars for your Republican presidential campaign and GOP candidates. But he'll also give you the aura of a presidency tarnished by painful gasoline prices, a sagging economy, the threat of recession, a blemished U.S. reputation around the world, turbulence in the Middle East and many more problems.

"There's also the unpopular war in Iraq -- although you already are closely associated with that."

Michael D. Shear and Michael Abramowitz write in The Washington Post: "Democrats seized the opportunity to link McCain and Bush, who has the job approval of only about 32 percent of Americans. An independent group launched a $1.1 million ad campaign called ' McSame' that links McCain's positions with those of Bush."

Charlie Savage writes in the Boston Globe: "Party chairman Howard Dean declared that a McCain presidency would represent a 'third Bush term' by continuing Bush's policies on Iraq, the economy, and healthcare."

Opinion Watch

The New York Times editorial board blogs: "Mr. Bush's embrace is one Mr. McCain should be wary of. . . .

"Mr. McCain has already thrown his lot in with Mr. Bush on the highly unpopular Iraq War, saying the United States may need to remain there for as long as 100 years.

"Mr. McCain could be compounding his problems by appearing to endorse the rest of what the Bush administration has come to represent for many Americans: allowing big corporations to call the shots on government policy; trampling on the law and civil liberties; sky-high gas prices; and allowing the economy to slide toward recession."

Here's MSNBC'S Tucker Carlson talking to The Hill's A.B. Stoddard and Democratic strategist Peter Fenn last night:

Carlson: "The torch has been passed. The question is: will it burn John McCain? . . . A.B., that was an uncomfortable moment. I wasn't expecting it to be as uncomfortable as it was. And it seemed to me in some way, but I can't quite articulate, it diminished John McCain, maybe because Bush seemed to need to answer every question and kind of hovered around him like a nervous mom. Did you think that?"

Stoddard: "Yes. I think when Bush is not comfortable -- I mean we really -- John McCain needed it to go sort of smoothly today, and when Bush is awkward, it makes it awkward. Everybody knows that they're former rivals. Everybody knows it's awkward. Everyone wonders what they talked about at lunch. . . . [F]or him, this is the day that he needs to go to the White House, be endorsed, consolidate his base, and then make plans to run away from this day in the next three months."

Fenn: "The best thing I think about this day was probably when John McCain was in the car and he looked in his rearview mirror and he saw Bush waving goodbye."

Daily Kos blogger smintheus writes: "The thing that stands out most, apart from McCain's cringing presence, is how he passively allows Bush to dominate the event. Bush jumped on the first question to box McCain in as heir to his Iraq policy. It was in response to a question posed to both McCain and Bush, 'how the Republican Party . . . is going to make the case that you're going to provide the change that the voters seem to want, both on Iraq and the economy?' Ignoring the economy (how typical), Bush gave a rambling version of his fear-mongering GWOT talk."