The Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans is ground seldom trod by Republican presidential candidates. Yet presumptive party nominee John McCain picked his way through the rubble there last month before launching into a scorching criticism of the Bush administration. "Terrible and disgraceful" was his characterization of the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the district in 2005.
The New Orleans stop was part of a sweep through hard-hit factory towns, African American strongholds and other spots where Democrats tend to get a warmer reception than the GOP, in what McCain's campaign dubbed the "America's Forgotten Places" tour. A more apt name might have been the "Ditch Bush" tour, because much of it was spent dumping on the administration that has forgotten those places. Nonetheless, McCain seldom mentions Bush by name unless pressed by reporters, even as he has staked out policy positions on many issues that are nearly identical to the incumbent's.
If Bush is the monkey on McCain's back, he's also the 800-pound gorilla of Republican politics. As dearly as McCain would love to put distance between himself and a president whose approval ratings have gone lower than Richard M. Nixon's at his nadir, he can't possibly abandon the core GOP principles that won Bush two terms in office -- not least because McCain personally shares most of them and has been backing them in the Senate for decades. That puts him in a very tight spot.
"The change this country needs will not come from a third term of George W. Bush, and that's exactly what John McCain is offering in this campaign," said Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama in a recent speech. That has been a constant theme from both Obama and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton even while they've been savaging each other, meaning the cry will get even louder in the general election. It's a smart strategy, given how badly Bush seems to have hurt Republicans in recent congressional races. On Tuesday, a conservative Democrat won a special election in what had been a staunchly GOP district in Mississippi -- the third defeat for a Republican in a special congressional race this year -- prompting senior party officials to warn candidates that if they want to win this fall, they had better do everything possible to cut the chain from the political anchor that is President Bush.
