Bush missing from McCain's campaign trail

Washington, Nov 3 (PTI) As Republican presidential nominee John McCain campaigned fervently to overcome the challenges posed by his Democratic rival, President George W Bush has decided to keep away from the election scene -- apparently not wanting to be a political liability.

Though Bush had no public events Friday through Monday as
per the White House schedule, he has apparently decided to
spend most of his time at Camp David, the rustic 125-acre
mountain retreat of the U.S. President, 97 km north of here.

"The president is pretty focused on the activities that
we have here, especially getting this economy back in order,"
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

"We cancelled a lot of our fundraisers, and he's going to
focus on being with Mrs Bush and others this weekend at Camp
David," Perino was quoted as saying by CNN.

On Friday, Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto offered a
more detailed explanation.

"The truth is we're also trying to stay out of the public
limelight during this period of the election season," said
Fratto. "There are two individuals out there running to be
president of the United States, and we don't want to
complicate that for them," the report said.

In the final presidential debate between Obama and McCain
on October 16, the Vietnam War veteran had tried to distance
himself from Bush.

"Yes. Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you
wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four
years ago," McCain had remarked in one of the more forceful
moments of the third and final debate.

Political experts acknowledge the reality that a
lame-duck president with record low approval ratings -- 28
percent according to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll
-- is a political liability for Republican presidential
candidate John McCain.

"These are all politicians who are running for office.
They all read the polls. They all have their finger wetted and
up to see where the breeze is blowing," said Stephen Hess, a
veteran staffer of the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations
and an adviser to Presidents Ford and Carter.

"You can be sure that if George W Bush was more popular,
he'd be out there."

The numbers tell the story.

Of the 46 fundraisers President Bush attended this year,
only four were open to cameras -- and those were events
raising money for the Republican Party, the report said.

The last time Bush appeared at a public fundraiser
stumping for an individual candidate was on August 27, 2007.

And the four fundraisers Bush attended for Republican
nominee John McCain have all been closed to the news media.

It's a stark contrast to the farewell campaign tour of
the last two-term Republican president, Ronald Reagan, who
left office with one of the highest approval ratings ever at
the end of a presidency -- 64 percent.

Reagan embarked on a marathon coast-to-coast campaign
swing for George H.W. Bush, the current president's father,
during the final weekend of campaign '88.

Bush is expected to remain out of sight until after the
election. He and first lady Laura Bush have already voted by
absentee ballot. They are expected to spend Tuesday evening at
the White House with friends watching the results come in,
Perino was quoted as saying. PTI AKJ