NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/politics/12repubs.html?ex=1142744400&en=211ccebe5bfe6714&ei=5009&partner=MSN_NYTHOMEBush's Troubles Weigh Heavily as Republicans Meet
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: March 12, 2006
MEMPHIS, March 11 — Republicans gathered here this weekend acutely concerned with the elections ahead and distressed by the White House's performance since President Bush's re-election. They listened as a parade of prospective presidential candidates wrestled with how much to associate their campaigns with an increasingly unpopular sitting president.
In interviews, officials attending the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here described themselves as shaken by mistakes that have afflicted the White House, culminating with the collapse of the deal to allow a Dubai company to manage six American port terminals. Several urged the president to bring in new advisers to avoid losses in the midterm elections ahead and three fallow years in the White House.
Reflecting the political anxiety heading toward the 2008 election, the party's prospective presidential candidates, who spoke before about 2,000 here on Friday and Saturday, varied markedly in their handling of Mr. Bush as they dealt with what will clearly be a central strategic challenge for them.
Republicans said the complication for these candidates was that Mr. Bush remained highly popular with the party's conservative base, even in the face of deepening concerns across the electorate about his government and his policies.