The Pariah President

But a quick look at the historical record makes it clear that neither Bush 41 nor Gore completely rejected help from the standing president, as McCain has.

Consider Clinton's schedule in the final week of the 2000 campaign. On October 31, he headlined a rally in Louisville; on November 2 he held a rally in Los Angeles; on November 3, he held rallies in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland; on November 3 he held three rallies in New City; and on November 5, he led rallies in Little Rock and Pine Bluff, Ark.

And Ronald Reagan -- 77 at the time -- held to a sometimes grueling campaign schedule for Bush 41 in 1998. On October 27, for instance, he held three rallies in three states: one in Little Rock, another in Springfield, Mo., and the third in San Diego.

In the final week of the campaign, Reagan held rallies in Fullerton and San Bernardino, Calif.; in Berea, Ohio; in Palos Hills, Ill.; in Voorhees, N.J.; in Mount Clements, Mich.; in Mesquite, Texas; in Long Beach and in San Diego.

Maybe that had something to do with the fact that, according to Gallup, Clinton's approval rating was 63 percent at the time, and Reagan's was 52 percent, while Bush, at 25 percent, is near the all-time low for any president in modern history.

Poll Watch

According to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, the second biggest drag on McCain's candidacy is Bush (the first is his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate).

Laura Meckler writes for the Journal that McCain is "pressing his independence from President George W. Bush, whose job approval is at a record low in this poll. At last week's debate, Sen. McCain told Sen. Obama that he should have run four years ago if he wanted to challenge President Bush, a line he repeats on the trail. But the poll finds nearly six in 10 voters believe Sen. McCain's direction, agenda and policies would be mostly the same as President Bush's, down just slightly from those who said so a month ago."

One out of four Obama supporters say their vote will be more a vote against Bush and the Republican party than a vote for Obama. And a plurality of voters -- 35 percent -- feel the Bush administration is most to blame for the "problems the country is facing right now."

Al Qaeda Heard From

Joby Warrick and Karen DeYoung write in The Washington Post: "Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents. . . .

"'Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,' said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the 'failing march of his predecessor,' President Bush."

Iraq Watch

David Ignatius writes in his Washington Post opinion column: "Iraq hasn't gotten much attention recently in the American presidential campaign, thanks to the reduction in violence there, but U.S. policymakers are increasingly worried about what's ahead.

"The negotiations to complete a new status-of-forces agreement for U.S. troops are deadlocked. With a Dec. 31 deadline approaching, Baghdad and Washington seem to be running out of bargaining room. The Iraqis are determined to assert their sovereignty through legal jurisdiction over U.S. forces, while American officials are demanding broad protections from Iraqi law until U.S. troops are gone in 2011.